Eminem’s legal beef with The Real Housewives of Potomac stars Gizelle Bryant and Robyn Dixon rages on.
Eminem, 51, filed paperwork on December 15 asking the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board to grant him a protective order from having to appear in person for a deposition amid his ongoing trademark dispute with Bryant, 53, and Dixon, 44.
According to court documents obtained by AllHipHop, Eminem’s lawyers called the Bravo stars’ efforts to make him appear at a deposition “premature and procedurally improper,” noting that they have yet to serve the rapper “with a notice of deposition, a necessary prerequisite to taking and requesting that the Board compel a deposition.”
The filing also argued that Eminem’s presence at a deposition would be “duplicative and unduly burdensome” given the musician’s “limited knowledge of the subjects at issue” and claimed that Bryant and Dixon “have made no attempt to obtain the discovery they seek via more convenient and less burdensome means.” Us Weekly has reached out to Bryant and Dixon for comment.
The legal drama began in February when Eminem filed an opposition against Bryant and Dixon’s trademark application for their podcast name, “Reasonably Shady.” Eminem stated that he “believes he will be damaged by the issuance of a registration” of “Reasonably Shady” because it “resembles” his nicknames, Shady and Slim Shady, per court documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
Eminem’s lawyers further argued that the “Reasonably Shady” trademark “is likely to cause confusion” among consumers.
Bryant and Dixon hit back with a filing of their own in March, asking for Eminem’s opposition to be denied. In court documents obtained by Page Six, the pair denied “any likelihood of confusion between [Eminem’s] trademarks and their Reasonably Shady mark.”
Bryant and Dixon’s legal counsel added: “We are prepared to defend any allegations against them regarding their intellectual property.”
The reality TV personalities filed to trademark their podcast’s name in February 2022 with the intent to begin selling products including cosmetics, clothing and water bottles. Bryant and Dixon launched the “Reasonably Shady” podcast in 2021.
During a November interview with Essence, Dixon called the podcast “a blessing.” Bryant chimed in: “It is really a joy, because we’re able to really show who we are outside of the cameras. It kind of takes us away from the Potomac show space and allows us to just say all the nonsense that we say and just dig deep into our relationship and just have fun.”
The idea for the podcast came to Dixon during the coronavirus pandemic after she and Bryant went live on Instagram together.
“All of our followers hopped on, and we were just talking about random stuff, and we were just having such a good time, and the followers were having a good time interacting with us and asking us random questions,” Dixon recalled. “And it just felt really good to be talking to each other about stuff that was not related to The Real Housewives of Potomac and having a good time and laughing and joking.”
