Sony ran Kevin Butler ads from 2009 to 2011. The hadn't run one all year. I remember threads on this site asking what the heck happened to Kevin Butler. So to Kowenicki's point, given the time th first Bridgestone ad appeared, it would have been well over 6 months since his contract had ended. There is also an issue that would arise from how a such a non compete clause was worded. Bridgestone isn't a direct competitor to Sony. So unless the contract specifies that he can't be seen using a competitors product publicly, he wouldn't be in violation of such a clause.

Although he may not of had a PS commercial all year, regardless these clauses last several years after work has stopped. Any smart company would place it for a considerable amount of time, 4 years maybe. Shit, my modeling contract says I can't work for a competitor in the same state for 2 years after.

You guys make it sound like they put somekind of huge restriction on his ability to work. These clauses can only say he cannot work for a direct competitor in the same field......of which there are only TWO.....NINTENDO and MS. So out of the millions of other companies in the world he still finds himself being used by one of them....coincidence? No. It cannot be a coincidence that one of those two would want to use him in advertising their console when last year he was advertising PS, do you guys not see why Sony would want these taken down immediately and him sued?

He made the commercials for Bridgestone, you know the tire maker. I guess they are a direct competitor to Sony who also makes tires...

BTW they are not suing him for Breach of Contract they are suing for Trademark Infringement.

The fact the commercial is a Bridgestone one becomes totally irrelevant when BS is advertising a Wii! Jerry =Bridgestone = Wii, Jerry = Wii. And that is a trademark Infringement problem, he is their "Intelectual Property" as Kevin Buttler, and that commercial infringed on that.

The actor Jerry Lambert is Sony's Intellectual Property? The fictional character "Keven Butler" is Sony's property, but the actor Jerry Lambert is not. They may look the same (at least until Sony finds a new actor), but they are not the same. The mannerisms, etc. used by Jerry in the Bridgestone commercial were completely different from the fictional charcter "Kevin Butler"s mannerisms.

Besides that, this was filed in California and non-compete agreements are generally not valid in the State of California.

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/noncompete-agreements-are-also-nonlegal-in-california/Content?oid=1878905

Why are people talking about breach of contract when this is a trademark suit.

An incredibly stupid trademark suit, since before Lambert worked for Sony he played the exact same character for Holiday Inn years beforehand.

All sony did was give the guy a name.

Sony is just using their vast resources to bully a smaller company and an individual actor.  Which is generally part for the course for Sony.

It's like when they kept filing and losing lawsuits vs bleem! but eventually bled them to death with legal costs, or when they sued a guy who increased the sale of their Aibo dogs by making them dance.

This will be solved with a settlement no doubt.

Just some additional clarification.  Apparently, someone in the business, posted on Kotaku that this is pretty typical of people who do commercial work.  They do business as a corporation for tax purposes.  Wildcat Creek Inc. began shortly after Jerry Lambert began the Kevin Butler advertisements.  So his accountant likely advised him to start up the corp as a tax shelter.

It's "par for the course", a golf reference, not "part for the course."  Just FYI.

Yeah, the judge apparently has been attempting to get both sides settle without much success.  It appears that Sony wants to punish both Bridgestone and Jerry Lambert. 

I guess when you're bleeding money you have to try and make it by some means. 

So this is a trademark suit? This isn't going to end well for Sony. Reminds me of the baseless lawsuit Daniel Pesina filed against Midway that kept Johnny Cage out of Mortal Kombat temporarily.

You're joking right, Sony is sueing them because their spokesman was advertising for a different company, that's just sad.