C+C Music Factory co-founder sues rapper Freedom Williams over the group's name

Robert Clivilles, the surviving half of the two Cs in C+C Music Factory, has sued Freedom Williams in federal court over the use of the group's name. Rolling Stone reported the case on 18 August 2026; Music Business Worldwide dated the filing to Friday 14 August, in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, with Clivilles representing himself.

The complaint names Williams, his company Freedom Williams Entertainment, the label Big Mac Entertainment and 20 unnamed defendants. It runs to nine counts, among them trademark infringement, fraud on the US Patent and Trademark Office, unjust enrichment, defamation and breach of contract. Clivilles asks for at least 10 million dollars in compensatory damages, trebled under the Lanham Act to 30 million, plus punitive damages and the profits Williams has taken. He also wants the registration cancelled and administrative control of the C+C Music Factory Instagram account, which Williams runs.

The case turns on what the two Cs stand for. The name means Clivilles and Cole Music Factory, the complaint says, for Clivilles and David Cole, who started the group in New York City in 1990, and Williams was a featured guest artist on particular recordings rather than a member. It points to a recording agreement dated 23 January 1990 that engaged him as a vocalist for hire, and says he asked to be released from it in mid-1991. Cole died on 24 January 1995, and a settlement with his estate in October 1996 recognised Clivilles' exclusive commercial right to the name.

The trademark history is why this is being fought now rather than thirty years ago. Williams registered C AND C MUSIC FACTORY in his own name in May 2005 and lost it in 2012 for failing to file an affidavit of use. A fresh application in October 2014, under Freedom Williams Entertainment, was granted in July 2015. Clivilles petitioned to cancel that registration in December 2016 and the case was dismissed with prejudice in June 2018 because his previous lawyer never filed a trial brief, which means no tribunal has ruled on the substance of it. His options have narrowed since: the window to attack the mark on priority grounds shut in July 2020, and the registration became incontestable in August 2021, leaving fraud and false connection as the grounds that stay open.

What set the lawsuit off was a video. On 29 May 2026 a seven-minute clip went up on the C+C Music Factory Instagram account in which, the complaint alleges, Williams invoked Adolf Hitler, used repeated racial slurs and directed degrading language at members of the public. He had been booked for a Trump concert series that was later scrapped, and filmed the clip in his bathroom as the backlash built. Clivilles set up a rival official account, issued a public legal warning on 2 June, and ten days after that the defendants released a single called Into the Future through Big Mac Entertainment Records, branded as a C+C Music Factory record and sent to more than 80 digital platforms.

Williams' attorney, Charles F. Schmitt, told Billboard that the claims are meritless and that Williams is the legal owner of the mark, arguing that the 2018 dismissal ends it, since "you don't get a second bite at the apple." Rolling Stone said a representative for Williams did not immediately respond to it. The complaint says Williams has collected between 5,000 and 10,000 dollars a booking since the late 1990s, and Clivilles wants a jury to decide who owns the name. Court filings have been thick on the pop beat this month, from Demon Hunter's trademark claim against Netflix to Ellie Goulding's suit against her old management company.