Photo Credit: Lady Gaga by Agustina Arán / CC by 4.0

Lady Gaga has defeated a trademark infringement suit filed by a surfboard brand, as a judge dismisses the case, citing insufficient evidence.

On Tuesday, a judge dismissed the trademark infringement lawsuit filed against Lady Gaga by a surfboard brand over her Mayhem album title and accompanying logo. The owners of Lost Surfboards, who have a line of Mayhem-branded boards, sued the star over the title and logo of her album just weeks after its release in March 2025.

At the time, they claimed that Gaga’s album would cause confusion for consumers and make them think the surf brand was associated with her. Lost Surfboards accused the pop superstar of showing a “blatant disregard” of their company’s trademark rights and asserted that her album’s logo was too similar to their own.

But Judge Fernando M. Olguin ruled on Tuesday, August 18, that the surf company’s case was too weak to move forward and dismissed it outright.

“These allegations are conclusory and insufficient to constitute an explicit indication, overt claim, or explicit misstatement identifying Lost as the source of Lady Gaga’s work,” the judge wrote in his ruling. “The use of a mark alone is not enough […] and nothing in the [lawsuit] suggests or otherwise indicates an affirmative misrepresentation in connection with the source or the content of Lady Gaga’s work.”

Further, Judge Olguin noted that expressive works such as album names “implicate the First Amendment right of freedom of speech,” ruling that consumers were unlikely to think an album name was an endorsement of another brand.

In a motion to dismiss, Lady Gaga’s lawyers called the lawsuit “a transparent attempt to extract leverage and publicity from the expressive use of a common dictionary word by one of the world’s most recognizable artists.” They also noted that Lost Surfboards could not “identify a single confused consumer” who thought the two entities were connected.

In December, Lady Gaga secured an initial victory in the case when the same judge rejected Lost’s request to prevent her from selling Mayhem-branded merchandise.

Notably, Lost Surfboards can still appeal the ruling.