Lady Gaga's legal team is asking to be reimbursed $232,484 in legal fees after successfully defeating a trademark lawsuit filed by Lost Surfboards over the name of her album Mayhem, calling the case a "publicity stunt masquerading as a lawsuit."
Lost Surfboards sued the star, whose legal name is Stefani Germanotta, in March 2025, alleging that fans who saw the Mayhem album title would mistakenly believe it was endorsed by the surf company, which says it has sold products under the Mayhem brand since the 1980s. The company also argued that the album and related merchandise used a stylized red logo strikingly similar to the one on its surfboards.
A federal judge rejected the case last month, finding no meaningful likelihood of consumer confusion. In a scathing motion filed Friday, Gaga's attorney Orin Snyder wrote that the lawsuit was "never a legitimate lawsuit" but rather an attempt to "capitalize on the fame and popularity of Lady Gaga" through the use of "a common dictionary word."
"A litigant should not be permitted to use the federal courts to launch a publicity stunt masquerading as a lawsuit against a high-profile artist," Snyder wrote. "Nor should it be permitted to wield the machinery of litigation as a device for extracting a settlement that the merits cannot justify. This lawsuit was both."
Lost suffered an early setback in December, when the same judge, Fernando M. Olguin, denied its request for an injunction that would have forced Gaga to stop using the Mayhem name on her album and tour. Rather than abandon the case, Snyder wrote, Lost "doubled down" and "dug in," prolonging litigation for nine more months and repeatedly demanding a full-day deposition from Gaga herself during an international tour.
"The burden was the point," Snyder wrote. "That is not the vindication of trademark rights; it is the use of federal process as a pressure campaign."
In his final ruling last month, Judge Olguin found Lost's claims were barred by First Amendment protections that generally shield expressive works like music from trademark claims. He wrote that Lost's allegations were "conclusory and insufficient to constitute an explicit indication, overt claim, or explicit misstatement identifying Lost as the source of Lady Gaga's work," adding that shared use of the word alone was "not enough."
Gaga's attorneys are now arguing the case meets the "exceptional" legal standard required for a winning party to recover its fees, writing that Lost had asked the court to believe "consumers would mistake stadium-tour merchandise — including merchandise emblazoned with Lady Gaga's name and image — for the products of a San Clemente surf shop."
Lost's attorney, Keith G. Bremer, said at the time of the ruling that he and his client "respectfully disagree" with the decision and intended to appeal. As of Monday (Sept. 14), no notice of appeal had been filed, and Bremer did not return a request for comment. The filing was first obtained and reported by Billboard.
Photo: Carlos M. Vazquez II, CC BY 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
