The dispute between the Velvet Underground and the Andy Warhol Foundation over the iconic banana has finally come to a close. The lawsuit was settled out of court and dismissed at the end of May.
Andy Warhol’s banana print is probably most well known for being the cover art of the Velvet Underground’s 1967 album The Velvet Underground & Nico, named the 13th greatest album of all time by Rolling Stone.
In January of last year, Lou Reed and John Cale filed two lawsuits against the Andy Warhol Foundation, which was started after Warhol’s death as means of carrying on his legacy. The first, for copyright infringement, was dismissed after a few months because, amazingly, Warhol never copyrighted the image. The second, for trademark infringement, has been dragging on up until last week. Reed, who very recently underwent a liver transplant, and Cale accused the Foundation of illegally using the image for iPad accessories, thus tricking the public into thinking that they somehow endorsed the product.
Though the two parties have come to some sort of agreement, details about what exactly that entails are being kept under wraps for the time being.
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