The Velvet Underground 'Banana' album lawsuit

Legendary 60’s rock band The Velvet Underground has filed a lawsuit in New York federal court against The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts over new uses of an iconic cover from the band's 1967 album, The Velvet Underground & Nico.
Andy Warhol created banana image cover art and it is one of the most instantly recognizable in rock music album art, and now the two parties are fighting over who gets to owns it.



When the album art was created a copyright or trademark on the banana design was never formally registered, but band members including Lou Reed and John Cale maintain it "became a symbol, truly an icon, of the Velvet Underground" for decades.

The lawsuit says that the Velvet Underground urged the Warhol Foundation to cease licensing activities "likely to cause confusion or mistake as to the association of Velvet Underground with the goods sold in commerce by such third parties."


After the Warhol Foundation planned to license the design for Apple's iPod and iPad, the band made moves to put a stop to such activity.

The lawsuit says that the Velvet Underground urged the Warhol Foundation to cease licensing activities "likely to cause confusion or mistake as to the association of Velvet Underground with the goods sold in commerce by such third parties."

Warhol is credited as the "producer" of the album and he came up with the idea for having an image of a banana on the cover. The original version was a sticker that could be peeled back; that version of the album is now a collector's item.


The Velvet Underground and Nico 1966