Photo Credit: The Ramones by Danny Fields, 1977
Joey Ramone’s brother sues Johnny Ramone’s widow over the allegedly improper use of the band’s trademarks and intellectual property.
The Ramones family is complicated. First, none of the members are actually related, having taken the name “Ramone” upon joining the band. Second, with all its members having passed away, The Ramones’ intellectual property is owned by two separate heirs: Joey Ramone’s real-life brother Mitchel Hyman, better known as Mickey Leigh; and Johnny Ramone’s wife Linda Cummings-Ramone. And somewhat infamously, those two individuals do not get along.
In a seemingly endless sea of legal squabbles between the two, the latest is a new filing in which Mickey Leigh accuses Linda Cummings-Ramone of “exploiting” the band’s legacy through being “unabashedly obsessed with portraying herself as the widow of Johnny Ramone.”
The new lawsuit, filed Friday in Manhattan federal court, paints Cummings-Ramone as a “former groupie,” whose “insatiable desire to shine a spotlight on herself” has “made and continues to make blatant attempts to exploit and personally capitalize on and benefit from the name, goodwill, and legacy of the Ramones.”
“That is, to try and push the false narrative that she is the heiress to […] the Ramones’ legacy,” the filing explains. “She most certainly is not. She is nothing more than a blatant self-promoter and an infringer.”
“Ramones are unique in many ways,” the lawsuit explains. “One of which is that they are the only band of stature where all the members were not related, but used the same last name as if they were. That made it easy for defendant to insert herself into the Ramones legacy as part of the family, the public spokesperson, and to associate her personal brand with Ramones, by using the name ‘Linda Ramone.’”
Leigh’s lawsuit asserts that Cummings-Ramone adopted the group’s stage name as a means to attach herself to the ‘family.’ “Indeed, ‘Linda Ramone’ never existed while her husband, John Cummings, was alive,” Leigh’s lawsuit continues. “Defendant increasingly adopted the name ‘Linda Ramone’ after Mr. Cummings died.”
Further, Leigh claims that despite earlier legal proceedings outlining the limits to which Cummings-Ramone can use the Ramone name, she has exceeded those limits in her “public persona.”
“Ms. Cummings-Ramone presents herself to the world as ‘Linda Ramone’ and unilaterally adopts the mantle of designated Ramones spokesperson and ‘keeper of the legacy,’” said Leigh’s lawyers. “She intentionally gives the false impression that she is empowered to take the lead on, or unilaterally pursue, Ramones business.”
Last January, Cummings-Ramone filed a lawsuit after Netflix announced a biopic about the Ramones based on Mickey Leigh’s memoir, I Slept With Joey Ramone, in which Pete Davidson was cast in the title role. Cummings-Ramone argued that such an adaptation would be little more than “a one-sided recitation of the history of the Ramones.”
