Don Henley Suit Against Clothing Company Survives Dismissal

Henley v. Duluth Holdings, No. CV 14-7827 DSF (C.D. Cal. Jan. 21, 2015).

Don Henley's lawsuit concerning an advertisements for Henley-style shirts that urged customers to “Don a henley, take it easy,” survives defendant's motion to dismiss.  The defendant apparel company had argued that the promotion was a joke.  The Court found that Defendant has not established that its use of Plaintiff’s name – and the name of one of his band’s most famous songs – in its advertisement was sufficiently transformative on its face that a motion to dismiss should be granted.

Don Henley Complaint Against Politician

Don Henley v. Devore, No. 09 Cv. 0481-JVS (C.D. Cal. complaint filed 4/17/2009)


"This action arises out of the wholesale appropriation and exploitation by Defendants DeVore and Hart of the well-known and valuable song "The Boys of Summer," written by Plaintiffs Don Henley and Mike CampbelL. Defendants' infringing conduct is unauthorized, brazenly wilful, and pursued solely in order to promote DeVore and Hart's personal and professional agenda. Openly flouting Henley and Campbell's intellectual property rights, DeVore and Hart copied almost
all of Henley and Campbell's copyrighted musical composition note for note and, altering the lyrics to suit their own purpose and using a recorded performance of the work to mimic the original Henley recording, produced and distributed a video featuring Henley and Campbell's song (the "Boys of Summer Video"). DeVore and Hart's avowed aim in doingthis was to use the Boys of Summer Video to promote DeVore's campaign for th~ Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in 2010.