Robert Clivillés, the surviving co-founder of C+C Music Factory, is suing rapper Freedom Williams for USD $30 million over his use of the group’s name.
The complaint, which you can read in full here, was filed on Friday (August 14) in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, with Clivillés representing himself.
It names Williams, his company Freedom Williams Entertainment, LLC and the label Big Mac Entertainment, LLC, along with 20 unnamed defendants.
The filing runs to nine counts, among them trademark infringement, false designation of origin, fraud on the USPTO, unfair competition, unjust enrichment, defamation, and breach of contract.
Clivillés is seeking compensatory damages of no less than USD $10 million, trebled under the Lanham Act to USD $30 million, along with punitive damages and disgorgement of profits.
He also wants the court to cancel USPTO Registration No. 4775972 and to hand him administrative control of the longstanding C+C Music Factory Instagram account, which Williams runs.
The case turns on what C+C refers to.
“The name C+C Music Factory stands for Clivillés and Cole Music Factory,” the complaint states.
“The name C+C Music Factory stands for Clivillés and Cole Music Factory. It refers exclusively to Robert Clivillés and David Cole, who created the group in New York City in 1990 and are the sole members of C+C Music Factory.”
Robert Clivillés’ complaint
“It refers exclusively to Robert Clivillés and David Cole, who created the group in New York City in 1990 and are the sole members of C+C Music Factory. Defendant Freedom Williams served exclusively as a featured guest artist on specific recordings.”
“Mr. Williams was never a founder, co-owner, or a signed group member of C+C Music Factory.”
According to the filing, Williams signed a Memorandum of Exclusive Recording Agreement with Cole/Clivillés Music Enterprises dated January 23, 1990.
Williams was engaged under it “exclusively as a featured vocalist for hire, not as a member, co-founder, or owner of C+C Music Factory in any capacity whatsoever,” the complaint says.
Clivillés says Williams asked to be released from that agreement in mid-1991, “stating he did not want to be associated with C+C Music Factory or with Clivillés and Cole‘s enterprises going forward.”
David Cole died on January 24, 1995.
An Estate Settlement Agreement signed with Cole‘s estate on October 4, 1996, recognized Clivillés‘ exclusive right to commercial use of the C+C Music Factory name, according to the complaint.
Williams registered the mark C AND C MUSIC FACTORY in his own name on May 17, 2005, and that registration was canceled in 2012 for failure to file an affidavit of use, USPTO records show.
A fresh application for C & C MUSIC FACTORY followed on October 29, 2014, this time in the name of Freedom Williams Entertainment, and it was granted as Registration No. 4775972 on July 21, 2015.
“As part of his application, Williams affirmed falsely and knowingly that he was the owner of the mark and that no other persons had the right to use the mark in commerce,” the complaint alleges.
“These statements were false. Plaintiff Clivillés created the mark in 1990 and has continuously used it in commerce since that date.”
“Williams knew this.”
Clivillés petitioned the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board to cancel that registration in December 2016.
“The TTAB proceeding was dismissed with prejudice on June 25, 2018 solely due to Plaintiff’s prior counsel’s failure to file a trial brief,” the complaint states.
“No tribunal has ever adjudicated the substance of Plaintiff’s cancellation claims on the merits,” Clivillés writes.
The filing traces the current dispute to a seven-minute video posted to the C+C Music Factory Instagram account on May 29, 2026.
In the video, the complaint alleges, Williams “made statements invoking Adolf Hitler, used repeated racial slurs, and directed vulgar and sexually degrading language at members of the public.”
Williams had been booked for Donald Trump‘s Freedom 250 concert series, part of the Great American State Fair, and filmed the video on a toilet amid the backlash. Most of the announced lineup withdrew, and Trump canceled the concerts in June, replacing them with a rally he headlined on June 24, the day before the fair opened to the public.
Clivillés launched a rival official C+C Music Factory Instagram account to disavow Williams, and issued a public legal warning on June 2, 2026.
Ten days later, the defendants released a single called Into the Future through Big Mac Entertainment Records, branded as a C+C Music Factory record and issued to more than 80 digital platforms.
That release “was made with full knowledge of Plaintiff’s legal objections, establishing willful and deliberate infringement,” Clivillés alleges.
Sony Music signed Clivillés and Cole “directly as C+C Music Factory to a five-album deal before any featured artists were engaged,” the filing says.
Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) topped both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, the complaint says, and Things That Make You Go Hmmm… also reached No. 1 on Club Play.
Williams‘ solo career did not match that: his 1993 single Voice of Freedom peaked at No. 74 on the Hot 100 and No. 4 on Club Play.
Since the late 1990s, the complaint alleges, Williams has collected between USD $5,000 and USD $10,000 per booking worldwide.
Williams‘ attorney, Charles F. Schmitt, told Billboard that the claims are meritless and that Williams is the legal owner of the mark.
Schmitt, who appears on the register as the attorney of record on the 2014 application, argued that the case is barred by the dismissal of Clivillés‘ earlier challenge.
Courts generally treat a dismissal with prejudice as a full adjudication, Schmitt said, and “you don’t get a second bite at the apple.”
Clivillés‘ route to cancellation has narrowed since the 2018 dismissal.
A registration can be attacked on priority grounds only within five years of registration, a window that shut in July 2020.
USPTO records show the mark then cleared Sections 8 and 15 in August 2021, making it incontestable.
Two of the grounds that stay open at any time matter here: a registration can be canceled if it was obtained fraudulently, or if it falsely suggests a connection with a person, living or dead.
Clivillés pleads fraud on the USPTO, and argues separately that Williams had no right to claim a mark consisting of two other people’s initials.Music Business Worldwide
