Wu-Tang Clan member goes after pun-loving dog walkers
Not everyone likes a pun, especially RZA.
The Wu-Tang Clan member, otherwise known as Robert Diggs, is taking legal action against a Brooklyn dog-walking company for violating the hip hop group's copyright with their name, reports the The New York Daily News.
Woof-Tang Clan, which operates out of Brooklyn, has been accused of using an appropriation of the Staten Island group's name and logo.
Diggs has owned the "Wu-Tang" and "Wu-Tang Clan" trademarks since Feb. 24, 2009, but Woof-Tang Clan filed for its own trademark on June 8, 2017. According to recently filed court papers unpacked by the Daily News, Diggs says this is a violation of his registered trademarks, and that the group's name and logo have been “unmistakably associated” with the group since the 1990s.
Woof-Tang Clan's website shop section has come under scrutiny, too, for t-shirts parodying album covers like Wu-Tang member Old Dirty Bastard's debut solo album Return to the 36 Chambers, but featuring a pooch instead.
There's also an homage to De La Soul's debut album 3 Feet High and Rising, in a logo featured on both a merch t-shirt and on the company's Instagram page:
At the time of writing, the shop has been emptied.
Neither RZA or Woof-Tang Clan owner Marty Cuatchon have issued public statements.
Shannon Connellan is Mashable's UK Editor based in London, formerly Mashable's Australia Editor, but emotionally, she lives in the Creel House. A Tomatometer-approved critic, Shannon writes about entertainment, tech, social good, science, culture, and Australian horror.
