Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 23, 1990 TAG: 9003231710
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOHN POLICH LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
The suits, filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Federal Court, claim that USA Today, Star magazine and a Delaware-based publishing company, Merry-Go-Round Inc., sponsored toll numbers that illegally capitalized on the group's name, likenesses and popularity.
The defendants used the phone-in services to sell merchandise and compile mailing lists of New Kids on the Block followers, lawyers for the group said.
A fourth suit charges the Florida-based Investex Investment Exchange, or Star Talk, with sponsoring an unauthorized toll number offering recorded information on the group.
The suits seek combined damages of more than $50 million.
Each of the suits claims that the unauthorized toll numbers damaged the business of two call-in numbers operated by the New Kids since last year.
The legitimate numbers have received tens of thousands of calls with a "significant portion" of the profits being donated to charity, according to the suits.
The suits also claim that advertisements for the unauthorized numbers used the New Kids' names and likenesses without their permission.
Lawyers for the defendants were unavailable for comment.
According to the suits, USA Today published a phone-in poll in February asking which of the New Kids was most popular, while Star magazine sponsored a phone poll earlier this month on which of the five-member group was the sexiest, according to court documents.
Merry-Go-Round is charged with using the group's likeness to advertise a phone-in trivia game.
The New Kids - Donnie Wahlberg, Danny Wood, Jon Knight, Jordan Knight and Joe McIntyre - have sold more than 14 million records and two million videos since 1985.
by CNB