Recently Sony filed a lawsuit against Bridgestone for including Kevin Butler in a commercial.  The issue is not that Jerry Lambert, the actor who plays Kevin Butler, was in Bridgestone’s commercial but that Mr. Lambert was playing a Nintendo Wii in the commercial.  Sony has since made a statemnet regarding their lawsuit and said the following.

“Sony Computer Entertainment America filed a lawsuit against Bridgestone and Wildcat Creek, Inc. on September 11. The claims are based on violations of the Lanham Act, misappropriation, breach of contract and tortious interference with a contractual relationship. We invested significant resources in bringing the Kevin Butler character to life and he’s become an iconic personality directly associated with PlayStation products over the years. Use of the Kevin Butler character to sell products other than those from PlayStation misappropriates Sony’s intellectual property, creates confusion in the market, and causes damage to Sony.”

Bridgestone maintains that Kevin Butler did not appear in the commercial and that in no way shape or form was Mr. Jerry Lambert playing as Kevin Butler.  Here is the statement that Bridgestone made regarding Sony’s Kevin Butler lawsuit.

“Mr. Lambert is one of the actors who appeared in the commercial as a Bridgestone engineer,” and “Bridgestone denies that ‘Kevin Butler’ appears in the Bridgestone commercial discussed herein and thus denies that he speaks or does anything whatsoever in the commercial.”