Jerry Lambert is the fictional character created by Sony’s marketing team where the actor played Kevin Butler in the popular line of commercials. More recently, Lambert’s began appearing in a new line of commercials which were touting Nintendo’s Wii products in a promotion for Bridgestone Tires.
According to a recent lawsuit filed by Sony, both Lambert and Bridgestone are in violation of trademark violations, using the characters’ popularity within the gaming community to promote a competing video game system.
“We invested significant resources in bringing the Kevin Butler character to life and he’s become an iconic personality directly associated with PlayStation products over the years,” according to a recent statement from the company.
The original commercials that aired shortly after Butler’s contract with Sony expired have been scrubbed from existence, whether Sony’s complaints will force Lambert out of promoting other video game systems in the future is yet to be determined by the court.
