(picture courtesy of blog.gactv.com)
Good for Eric! He's going after vendors who allegedly sell knock off merchandise. The Nashville Business Journal reports that various defendants are charged with traveling from show to show to sell the merchandise and "quickly hide or discard infringing goods and walk or run away" when approached by Eric's team.
If you go to a show be on the look-out for black t-shirts with Eric's image and his Blood, Sweat & Beers Tour dates. So far they've been sold at shows in Tennessee, Arkansas and Virginia. James Ellis Smith, Kenneth Hargrove, James B. Sweet, Steven Williams, various Jane and John Does and various XYZ corporations have been named as defendants.
According to documents filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee "without a federal court order authorizing the seizure of infringing goods at and near...2012 tour concert locations, (Church) will lose innumerable and irrecoverable sums of merchandise sales and will suffer incalculable, irreparable damage to his reputation and goodwill."
Eric is seeking judgment for compensatory and punitive damages. He also wants a permanent injunction prohibiting the manufacturing, marketing and sale of counterfeit merchandise.
Of all the nerve!