Photo Credit: Lady Gaga’s sweatshirt (left); Lost International trademark logo (right)
Universal Music and Lady Gaga are now demanding over $230,000 in legal fees after beating Lost International’s Mayhem-focused trademark suit. But the surf brand isn’t ready to throw in the towel, as it’s officially appealing the $100 million case’s dismissal.
Both noteworthy developments surfaced in legal docs that were obtained by DMN, which has been covering the courtroom confrontation since it began back in March 2025. The way Lost International sees things, Universal Music Group (UMG)/Bravado and Lady Gaga herself infringed on its “Mayhem” trademark by selling merch featuring a “nearly identical” logo.
Without retreading too much ground here, Mayhem is described as the nickname of Lost co-founder Matt Biolos, and the company is said to have been releasing Mayhem-branded clothing and surfboards for some time.
Running with the point, the defendants allegedly “attempted to misappropriate the ‘Mayhem’ name, trademark, and stylized mark by releasing an album entitled ‘Mayhem,’ launching a tour with that same name, and selling clothing and accessories with that name,” according to the suit.
As many will recall from our prior coverage, UMG and Lady Gaga are on an entirely different page and have refuted the “legally insufficient” claims from the outset.
The aggressive defense delivered an early victory in December 2025, when the court rejected the plaintiff’s preliminary injunction request on First Amendment grounds. And as emphasized in their newly submitted motion for attorneys’ fees, the defendants believe the “publicity stunt masquerading as a lawsuit” should have ended there.
However, the alleged attempt “to capitalize on the fame and popularity of Lady Gaga” and Mayhem’s release didn’t conclude then. Per the defendants, the surf brand plowed ahead with a substantially similar amended complaint and moved to depose Lady Gaga for “a full day, in the middle of her ten-month world tour, with no articulated need.”
But the alleged steps didn’t deliver the desired result; the presiding judge tossed the action with prejudice about one month ago.
Consequently, Universal Music and Gaga are only seeking “the fees that Lost’s persistence following the preliminary injunction ruling required,” or the initially highlighted $232,484.50 for 144.9 billable attorney hours.
(Though the average there is “just” $1,605 per hour, one of the involved attorneys apparently billed at an astonishing average hourly rate of $3,299, the filing shows.)
Time will tell where the legal-fees cards fall – and whether the demand, the latest in a line of attempts to make plaintiffs cough up post-dismissal, will cause others to think twice about pursuing allegedly meritless litigation.
More immediately, the fees push has evidently failed to deter Lost International. In a recent notice, the surf brand formally appealed to the Ninth Circuit. Now, dismissal with prejudice and high-stakes fees clash aside, the trademark battle is raging on, and we’ll continue tracking the decidedly expensive dispute moving forward.