C+C Music Factory Co-Founder Sues Freedom Williams for $30 Million Over Band Name Control
Robert Clivillés, co-founder of C+C Music Factory, has sued rapper Freedom Williams for $30 million in damages, escalating a years-long fight over who owns the rights to one of the biggest dance acts of the early 1990s.
The federal lawsuit was filed on Friday, August 14 and obtained by Billboard (Billboard). Clivillés filed it pro se — without a lawyer — naming Williams and indie label Big Mac Entertainment as defendants. The claims include trademark infringement, fraud, defamation, unfair competition and breach of contract, according to Billboard and Variety (Variety).
C+C Music Factory was co-founded by Clivillés and the late David Cole in 1990. The group's debut single, "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)," topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1991. Williams rapped on that track as a featured artist, and on follow-up hits "Here We Go" and "Things That Make You Go Hmmmm," which reached No. 3 and No. 4 on the Hot 100 the same year.
At the centre of the dispute is a trademark. Williams legally registered the C+C name in 2005 with the U.S. trademark office. Clivillés contends that registration was obtained fraudulently, accusing Williams of falsely claiming on application paperwork that the name belonged to him. Clivillés argues that he became sole owner of the C+C name after Cole died in 1995, and that Williams held a "subordinate contributor role" as a featured artist — not part of the group's "core brand."
Clivillés first tried to cancel Williams' trademark in 2016 through the federal trademark tribunal. That case was dismissed after Clivillés' then-lawyer missed a filing deadline.
The new lawsuit alleges Williams has been collecting performance fees tied to the C+C name since the late 1990s. It also cites a single called "Into the Future," which Williams released in June under the C+C name through Big Mac Entertainment. Clivillés is asking a judge to cancel Williams' trademark ownership, bar him from using the name, and have "Into the Future" removed from circulation.
The complaint also takes aim at a seven-minute video Williams posted in May to the official C+C Instagram account about his inclusion in the lineup for President Donald Trump's Great American State Fair concert. The lawsuit alleges the video contained statements invoking Adolf Hitler, racial slurs and sexually degrading language, and that these were false, defamatory and injurious to the C+C brand.
Clivillés had signalled the lawsuit was coming. In early June, he posted on his own Instagram account threatening legal action over Williams' continued use of the name, citing a history of alleged "Racial Discriminatory, Bigotry" conduct (Stereogum).
An attorney for Freedom Williams said there is not "any merit to the lawsuit whatsoever," according to Billboard.
The case asks a court to settle a question that has lingered for over a decade: whether the person who rapped the hooks or the person who built the productions owns the name on the record.
