Compton Records, doing business as Ruthless Records and owned by N.W.A's Eazy-E’s widow Tomica Woods-Wright, yesterday filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Lil Eazy-E (technically Woods-Wright's step-son) who has allegedly launched a company with the same Ruthless Records name.
The suit claims that the defendants have over the last year infringed on the Ruthless Records trademark operating the website www.ruthlessrecordsinc.com, which uses the Ruthless name and sells Ruthless merch, despite what the filing claims is a rejected application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to trademark Ruthless Records. The lawsuit describes the defendants’ conduct as “malicious, fraudulent, deliberate, and/or willful