A historic ruling in the case between JAY-Z and Iconix Brand Group over the Roc Nation logo has been made this past Wednesday (November 28) as a New York judge has granted the Roc Nation CEO’s request to halt the arbitration because of the lack of unbiased, black arbitrators presented to him.
“This is historic,” said JAY-Z’s attorney, Alex Spiro, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The two feuded in court over their $200 Million deal which was signed back in 2008 over the use of the famous logo by the Major League Baseball’s hats and other popular goods. This past October, Iconix made a play to move forward with proceedings at the American Arbitration Association under a settlement agreement prior to the lawsuits. However, Hov (real name, Shawn Carter) argued that Roc Nation’s agreement with Iconix Brand Group ignored New York’s public policy against discrimination.
“After a preliminary conference with the AAA, Mr. Carter and his companies sought to choose an arbitrator pursuant to the parties’ agreement, which required consultation of a list of more than 200 prospective neutrals,” wrote Spiro, in a petition over the arbitration, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. “When Mr. Carter began reviewing arbitrators on the AAA’s Search Platform, however, he was confronted with a stark reality: he could not identify a single African-American arbitrator on the ‘Large and Complex Cases’ roster, composed of hundreds of arbitrators, that had the background and experience to preside over the Arbitration. After repeated requests to the AAA for diverse arbitrators with expertise in complex commercial law, the AAA was able to provide only three neutrals it identified as African-American: two men — one of whom was a partner at the law firm representing Iconix in this arbitration and thus had a glaringly obvious conflict of interest — and one woman.”
The document from Carter called this “shocking” and argued that it would “deprive black litigants like Mr. Carter and his companies of the equal protection of the laws, equal access to public accommodations, and mislead consumers into believing that they will receive a fair and impartial adjudication.”
“Today’s order is a victory for everyone,” said Spiro, regarding the landmark decision, saying it is an “advancement for civil rights” and it is “the first decision of its nature throughout the country”
After New York Supreme Court Justice Saliann Scarpulla ruled in JAY-Z and Roc Nation’s favor, a temporary restraining order was issued by the judge, putting the arbitration on ice until Dec. 11, which will be their next court date.
[This article has been updated. The original version was published on November 28, 2018 and can be found below.]
JAY-Z has been on the forefront when it comes to African American ownership and representation in the music business. Now, he is tackling this regarding the legal representation over the battle for his Roc Nation logo, as he now wants the case to be iced until he sees some black faces.
TMZ, who broke the initial story, reports that Hov’s lawyers are seeking a restraining order that would immediately stop the lawsuit Iconix Brand has filed against them. Court documents revealed that his lawyer, Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has been given a deadline of November 30 to find an arbitrator, however, they have not been satisfied as all 200 of their selections are entirely white.
Iconix Brand claims that they have paid $204 Million for the Roc Nation logo’s merchandising rights and sued JAY-Z after the logo appeared on Major League Baseball gear without permission.
While both sides have agreed to settle the case in arbitration, rather than in an open court, JAY-Z and his legal team argue that the lack of diversity could seriously harm their odds of getting a fair shot in the case. And while they have received new list of 6 arbitrators of color, according to the documents, one appeared to be a conflict as interested as the individual is a partner at the firm that represents the plaintiff, Iconix.
Hov and his legal team want the restraining order to scan the remaining selection of arbitrators and to solicit new ones as well.
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I would put him on trial for that lame ass album he did with that attention seeking wife of his. Kanye maybe crazy, but at least his music is still good.
Bullshit it is
music is subjective so if u like kanyes new music, good for u kidd. as far as hip hop, kanyes new music is trashcan music. not even sure if its hip hop anymore. but u go ahead & enjoy kidd
jay Is so political at this point it’s cringe
Yep so we should just get all blacks to prosecute blacks whites to prosecute whites browns to prosecute browns and lets all let eachother get away with shit wooo
Sounds to me like this guy is antisemitic. We all know the lawyers have names like Goldberg, Cohen, Silver etc
I don’t know – jay and lyhor basically ruined rap together as a team – it would be hard to be anti Semitic and work your way up the music biz ranks
You missed the point. Jay is talking about replacing the J-words with black people and of course that is discriminating against the j-words. Its basically comparable to another shoah.
Arbitrator is not “legal representation”. More or less a judge in administrative court
In my experience, black people are more likely to give racial preferential treatment than white people. In fact, some liberal white people will even take the black person’s side by default just to virtue signal how woke they are. This motion is absurd, and I’m sure Hov and his lawyers know that.
This guy doesn’t care about race. He’s just doing all this now bc it’s trendy. Ask yourself, did he he really ever give a damn before? He’s as fake as his wife, Mrs. black power in a blonde wig. If you want someone who actually cared about race relations that was Pac. He represented when it sure as hell wasn’t trendy to do so.
Don’t be so quick to judge. Pac was flawed as well bud lol. Guy was far from perfect though he did do his part for the black community.
All I’m talking about is who cares about the black quality and who doesnt. A single issue, which even you seem to agree with.
Lmfao like just having a black arbitrator will absolve him of jacking someone else’s creativity … pssst … I’m black … your black … that means I can do whatever I want right?!?! What a elitist shitbag … white black brown …. doesn’t matter if you are not rich … a rich black man doesn’t give a fuck about a poor black man unless they can be exploited … same as rich white people dont care about poor white people!!
Where is this about jacking creativity? Its a licensing spat. Don’t let the facts get in the way of your rant tho….
Read for comprehension you retarded twat. Who’s creativity did he “jack” as per the article? The fuck are you talking about?
Well I can tell who has been through the legal system on here…you want to be judge by your peers….example amber Geiger Dallas cop kills someone but gets fourth outside of Dallas….where she can be judged by her peers….before you race bait understand the system…
This is disgusting by Jay z, it shows what money can get you. Can any regular black person do this????, doubt it!!. Black, white or brown!!, the man now looks guilty to me.
this is fuckin baller no matter what color skin you have. gtfoh lmao
Guilty of what exactly? You cave dwelling, melanin deprived embecile.
But could a white person say they can only move forward in a legal proceeding in the presence of white people without being ostracized by society? Of course not. That double standard is NOT evidence of progress, at least not if the goal is true racial equality. But of course for pointing this out, even though my reasons for doing so are a genuine yearning for a tolerant and diverse post-racial society, I would be labelled racist.
Your post makes zero sense. Do you think almost anywhere in the American Legal system a white person could not get fair and peer to peer representation? We all know the answer to this so stop trying to be a victim in a system that is run by you and is for you. Silly
Dope jay the man