Dr. Dre has lost a trademark infringement battle with a gynaecologist who wanted to trademark his name as Dr. Drai.
The case began back in 2015 when Draion M Burch – a Pennsylvania-based gynaecologist – attempted to adopt the play on words moniker. Dr. Dre then tried to stop him, claiming that the similarities would result in “confusion”.
Now, the BBC report that the US trademark office has disagreed with Dre and have dismissed the case.
A ruling made last week says that although the names are similar, the hip-hop star had failed to show that people would be misled into purchasing Dr. Burch’s products instead of his own.
As Burch’s typical fee for speaking engagements is $5,000 (£3,700),
it’s likely that customers would be cautious before parting ways with their cash.
Dr. Burch also claimed that using Dre’s popularity and reputation would be “a bad reflection on me as a doctor”, due to the rapper’s controversial lyrical content.
He said that there would be no confusion as Dre doesn’t have any medical background. “Dr. Dre is not a medical doctor,” he added, “nor is he qualified to provide any type of medical services or sell products specifically in the medical or healthcare industry.”
Burch, who describes himself as one of America’s top health experts, is also the author of ’20 Things You May Not Know About A Vagina’.
Meanwhile, Dr. Dre recently joined Eminem onstage at Coachella 2018. Marshall Mathers invited his mentor to perform alongside him during his headline set. The pair performed ‘Still D.R.E.’ as well as, ‘Nothin’ but a G Thang, a cover Tupac’s ‘California Love’ and ‘Forgot About Dre’.
Dre also features in the recent Netflix documentary, ‘The Defiant Ones’, along with Jimmy Iovine.