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Big League Stew

Thu Apr 15 09:09pm EDT

East Coast rivalry: Jay-Z sues David Ortiz over nightclub name

By 'Duk

Did Big Papi just pull off a big copy?

That's what rapper and noted Yankee fan Jay-Z is contending after he and a business partner filed a lawsuit against the Boston Red Sox star on Thursday.

Jigga's beef? Ortiz opened a nightclub in Santo Domingo in his native Dominican Republic and named it "Forty-Forty." 

Jay-Z thinks that's a sample that's too close to his line of "sports lounges" which carry the "40/40 Club" name ... no matter if Ortiz is spelling out the digits in order to be different.

Reuters has more:

"Jay-Z and Juan Perez(notes) own 40/40 Clubs in New York City, Atlantic City and Las Vegas and have plans to open further venues in Tokyo and Macau.

"They have accused Ortiz of trading on the fame, value and goodwill of their name through his club Forty/Forty and its website, www.fortyforty.net, which they say has caused their business 'marketplace confusion and damage,' the lawsuit said.

"'David Ortiz(notes) is fully aware of plaintiff's Manhattan 40/40 Club, since he had been a patron there on several occasions long before he opened his infringing Forty/Forty Club,' said the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court.

According to the 40/40 Club website, Jay-Z picked the name for his club because "the 40/40 club in baseball is as exclusive as it gets." But as Fanhouse's Tom Fornelli points out, Ortiz has never had a 40 homer, 40 steal season so it doesn't make sense for him to rip off the name — no matter how much he likes the food.

[Video: See Jay-Z's new single with a classic '80s twist.]

Thanks to Papi's lapse in creativity, this has to qualify as one of the strangest instances of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry. Not that Ortiz's performance can fall any further — he's hitting .154 with 13 strikeouts in 26 at-bats this season — but dragging a Red Sox rival into court is one heck of a great mind game from a Yankees fan.  

Wonder what Jay-Z's path would have been if it was A-Rod who did the same thing?

Also, can Ortiz file a case against the rapper for his song "Hey Papi?" 

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