Selena Quintanilla‘s father, Abraham Quintanilla Jr., is suing Los Angeles-based Catalina Classic Cruises over an “unauthorized” live tribute in honor of the late Tejano star.
According to the lawsuit, filed Monday (July 10) in the Central District of California, Selena’s father claims that the company “engaged in the unauthorized and unlawful promotion, marketing, and sale of services and/or merchandise through or containing the name, identity, image, and depicted likeness of Selena and registered [trademark].”
Furthermore, Quintanilla — who is the registered rights holder to Selena’s trademarks, name and likeness in connection to merchandise and advertising — claims that since November, Catalina Classic Cruises has promoted the trips using Selena’s likeness without ever getting permission to use her name. He’s seeking any profits made by the company while using the late singer’s name.
On June 3, according to a now-deleted flyer posted on Facebook, a cumbia-themed four-hour evening cruise across Long Beach Bay featured a performance titled “Live! Tributo a Selena.” According to the lawsuit, Catalina Classic Cruises has received a letter demanding that the defendant “cease and desist any future use” of Selena’s name.
Selena, “La Reina del Tex-Mex” (Queen of Tejano), single-handedly revolutionized the genre by fusing her Mexican roots with bold new sounds. On the Billboard charts, seven of her studio albums hit No. 1 on the Top Latin Albums chart, including Amor Prohibido (1994), which spent 20 weeks there, and Dreaming of You (released posthumously in 1995), which spent 44 weeks atop the tally. The latter set made history as the first predominately Spanish-language album to debut at No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart.
Billboard reached out to Catalina Classic Cruises but did not hear back by press time.
Read the lawsuit below:
