KANYE WEST AND YEEZY IN DEEP WATERS OVER THEFT FROM TECH COMPANY
Kanye West does not seem to be quitting the headlines. Following the failure of his presidential campaign, and the controversial release of his Yeezy shoes, he is yet again under fire for theft from a tech company called MyChannel, Inc (MYC).
The lawsuit is lodged on multiple accounts, theft being a part of the other two violations. Kanye is said to have lavished ‘promises of millions of dollars in economic reward, [and] of the formation of a lucrative partnership upon a video technology company in order to benefit from tens of thousands of hours of investment in Yeezy in reliance on those promises’. He has since failed to keep them.
MyChannel, a video, and technology company led by a group of black entrepreneurs, advisors, and investors, filed a complaint last week in a California federal court. The two parties came in contact for ‘maximizing revenues’ for West’s brand. Their agreement included both an increase in the site traffic and an enhancement of the customer experience. In spring 2018, the plaintiff said that Kanye and other leaders of the brand convinced them over a period of six months to move into their headquarters. Furthermore, they were encouraged to solely focus on Kanye and Yeezy by investing $7 million in the same. Still yet, in June 2018, West made the promise of a $10 million investment in MyChannel.
However, Kanye did not keep his promises and quit the partnership abruptly. The plaintiff is seeking reparations because it believes that what Kanye learned is worth millions of dollars. Added to this is his violation of NDA between the parties which was signed so as to protect ‘MYC’s proprietary information, trade secrets, and intellectual property include the inner-workings of the Video Platform’. Kanye’s Sunday Service imitates a component that is considered by MYC as a knock-off of their Video Platform. This feature, released on Kanye’s website, provides the performances of his gospel’s group with a ‘shoppable functionality’ whose use was prohibited under their NDA. Yeezy, thus, sees a lawsuit for misappropriation of proprietary and trade secrets through which the brand has managed to earn hundreds of millions of dollars.
Looking at the ten thousand hour labor that the venture with Yeezy cost MyChannel, they want a jury trial along with $20 million damages. Kanye’s brand stands in violation of good faith breach of fiduciary duty and unjust enrichment from the oral joint venture. This partnership was struck after Kanye’s declaration of support for the Black community. This lawsuit can cost Kanye not only a lot of money but also his reputation in the community.
