Madonna has been ordered by a federal judge to sit for a deposition in a lawsuit over her Hard Candy Fitness venture, RadarOnline.com reported.
Hard Candy Fitness is a partnership between Madonna, her manager Guy Oseary and Mark Mastrov, the founder and CEO of 24 Hour Fitness. Founded in 2010, the venture now owns fitness centers in Berlin, Mexico City, Moscow, Rome, Santiago, St. Petersburg, Sydney and Toronto.
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But a Florida-based beauty company—also named Hard Candy—accuses the fitness company of stealing its company name, and is suing for copyright infringement.
Judge John O’Sullivan has ordered Madonna to sit for a deposition, but ruled that she may limit her answers to questions pertaining to the lawsuit.
“In the event that Hard Candy’s counsel asks any further questions beyond the scope of permissible discovery during any future depositions, Defendant’s counsel is instructed to object that the question goes beyond the scope, permit the witness to answer the question, and file a motion with the Court if Sanctions are appropriate, ” the judge noted.
In 2012, Madonna released a DVD series, Addicted to Sweat, a reference to Madonna’s 2008 studio album Hard Candy.
The cosmetics company Hard Candy was founded in 1995 by Iranian American Dineh Mohajer and her ex-boyfriend Ben Einstein (who now owns Einstein Cosmetics). The company’s first product was nail polish that Dineh mixed herself: a shade of baby blue named “Sky” to match her Charles David sandals. Alicia Silverstone wore it to a 1995 taping of The Late Show with David Letterman, and the product took off. The rest was history — until Madonna helped herself to the company’s name.
