Kanye’s Got Beef With an Aussie Burger Joint

Across the world sits a humble burger join in North East Melbourne called “College Dropout Burgers”, and Ye has some unresolved beef with the burger joint’s owner. Kanye West filed a federal lawsuit against College Dropout Burgers accusing Australian restaurant-owner, Mark Elkhouri, of “misleading and deceptive conduct.”

Ye claims the hamburger restaurant, located in Ivanhoe (a suburb of Melbourne), continues to have food on its menu named after the artist’s 2004 album and says neither his store nor products are approved for use by Ye.

The legal team representing Ye recently filed a 43-page statement of claim, specifying that The College Dropout was the name of Ye’s 2004 debut album, along with their client’s ranking as “one of the greatest 100 artists of all time.”

The document claims, “Ye has suffered, and will continue to suffer, loss and damage.”

Of course it also notes, “Ye has sold more than 140 million records internationally and is one of the best-selling artists of all time.”

The lawsuit calls for Elkhouri to withdraw his Australian trademark application for College Dropout Burgers. In addition, Ye wants all products and materials that reference his restaurant’s brand to be destroyed. These items include a burger called “College Dropout”, which is still found on the menu, as well as the “Dropout Bear” silhouette.

“I can’t understand what would motivate a major artist to sue a small humble burger restaurant on the other side of the world,” Elkhouri has said regarding Ye’s recent claim.

7NEWS Australia reported that Elkhouri removed all references alluding to a Kanye theme from his brand, including the logo, menu items, and a mural of the award-winning artist at the entrance.

“With all the references to Mr. West removed, the court would be asking, is there a real chance that the ordinary consumer would see College Dropout burgers and think, ‘”Oh there’s a connection with Kanye West’?”, intellectual property law expert, Ben Hopper told 7NEWS.

Reportedly, since receiving a cease and desist notice from Ye’s lawyers in June, Elkhouri has rebranded and found new names for his burger combos that include other famous people who dropped out of education, like Steven Spielberg, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg.  Fortunately, it doesn’t appear that any of these individuals have expressed concern over their names being used in good “bun”.