A popular New York Times Square performer known as The Naked Cowboy is facing off against another performer who styles herself The Naked Cowgirl, claiming the woman is stealing his act.
Robert Burck, 39, performs for tourists in New York’s Times Square wearing only a cowboy hat, boots and briefs. He styles himself as The Naked Cowboy and claims any naked rodeo action in Times Square falls firmly under his trademark.
The Naked Cowboy says a woman calling herself The Naked Cowgirl is stealing from his act and profiting off of his trademark. Sandy Kane, clad only in a bikini (or sometimes just pasties) and a cowboy hat, also performs in Times Square. Burck is threatening to sue Kane for as much as $150,000 if she doesn’t cut it out or pay him a $5,000 a year franchise license fee.
“Your use of Naked Cowgirl is essentially identical to the Naked Cowboy and is clearly in violation [of the Naked Cowboy trademark],” Burck said in a cease-and-desist letter to Kane. Burck told the New York Post that if The Naked Cowgirl is “going to sell stuff and make money off of [copying his act], then, yeah, she’s going to have to pay.”
Kane points out that she’s being going “naked for years” while performing and only makes “two dollars a picture” while plying her Naked Cowgirl act. “I’m not selling any products.”
We just find it kind of sad these two cowpokes can’t just ride off into the sunset together…
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