Anyone hanging out for a Velevet Undergorund reunion can appararently put that dream to bed, according to a district court judge ruling in a copyright case regarding the iconic V.U banana.
Rolling Stone has reported that the Velvet Underground have lost their claim to the copyright ownership of the iconic Andy Warhol Banana that appears on the cover of the bands 1967 debut album "The Velvet Underground & Nico." The Velvets were counter suing the the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for a claim made in 2009 by the Andy Warhol Foundation that the use of the banana image infringed the foundations copyright. The Velvet Undergorund claimed that the image was a trademark logo of the band and that the Warhol Foundation has to pay licensing fees for it's use.
Judge Alison Nathan rejected the claim that the image was a band trademark, based on the Warhol Foundations promise never to sue the Velvet Underground for copyright infringement for use of the banana design.
Judge Nathan did not rule on who owned the image but did include the following stipulation amongst others in her judgment "The Velvet Underground broke up as a band in 1972; it last performed live in 1993 and will never perform live again."
