ATLANTA, GEORGIA - OCTOBER 3: Bow Wow attends BET Hip Hop Awards 2023 at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center on October 3, 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Prince Williams/WireImage)
Bow Wow is finding himself in some legal drama with Jermaine Dupri‘s dad. The father is accusing the rapper of unlawfully using his trademark name.
According to new court documents obtained by AllHipHop, Michael Mauldin has been going after Bow Wow since September. That is when he first filed the lawsuit against the 36-year-old and Black Promoters Collective.
Mauldin accused both parties of using the trademark “Scream Tour” and subsequently launching a new tour over the summer of 2023 with the same name without his permission.
Reportedly, Mauldin has owned the trademark since 2001, and considering Bow Wow’s close ties with him and Dupri over the years, he asserts that the rapper would have been “unquestionably familiar” with the name and its ownership.
In addition to that, Mauldin mentions that Bow Wow was part of the original Scream Tour line-up. This further indicates, per Mauldin, that the Ohio native should have known the name was already in use. However, it’s unclear if Bow Wow knew about its trademark status.
To make matters worse, in July, The Black Promoters Collective announced that Bow Wow had acquired an ownership stake in the tour, which they said “he helped to create.”
The court told Mauldin that he had 90 days to serve Bow Wow with the legal papers after filing the legal docs. But in his motion, filed on Tuesday (December 19), he claims it’s been difficult to get a hold of the ‘Let Me Hold You’ artist.
JD’s dad believes Bow Wow is intentionally avoiding service of the complaint. Therefore, he has requested an extension to serve the suit to the father of one.
Mauldin’s lawyer, Christopher Chan, who filed the motion on his client’s behalf, wrote, “The extension of time would aid in timely locating and serving defendant, who has been thus far unattainable since the initial filing of the complaint on September 21, 2023, due to the refusal of service by defendant’s counsel and the refusal of service at defendant’s address in Atlanta, Georgia… The extension of time would also prevent further delay in the case by avoiding a dismissal without prejudice and subsequent refiling of the Complaint. The proposed extension of time to serve the Defendant would extend the current deadline from December 20, 2023, to March 19, 2024.”
Bow Wow hasn’t responded to the accusations publicly yet.
In July, Black Promoters Collective announced that the anticipated return of the Scream Tour 2023 wouldn’t occur in September as expected initially. The event’s organizers stated that they had postponed the Scream Tour 2023: Next Up! and would announce a new date for the rescheduled show in 2024.
Bow Wow and Kayla Nicole were set to host the concert. That Girl Lay Lay, Young Dylan, Rocco Lupo, and Lay Bankz were some of the artists expected to perform on the stage.
It’s also unclear whether Mauldin’s lawsuit may have influenced the show’s inability to come to fruition. Nonetheless, Mauldin will reportedly continue to pursue serving Bow Wow with the complaint.
