Yesterday, we told you about how Sony had filed a lawsuit against Bridgestone tires and actor Jerry Lambert, perhaps better known as “Kevin Butler,” a fake Sony executive he has played in PlayStation ads for several years. While Sony accuses Bridgestone of misappropriating the electronics giant’s intellectual property by featuring Lambert in an ad (that also happens to show him playing a Nintendo Wii), the tire company has responded by saying that even though both ads feature the same actor, he’s not playing the same character.

“Mr. Lambert is one of the actors who appeared in the commercial as a Bridgestone engineer,” Bridgestone explains in its defense. “Bridgestone denies that ‘Kevin Butler’ appears in the Bridgestone commercial discussed herein and thus denies that he speaks or does anything whatsoever in the commercial.”

Bridgestone also claims that Sony never registered any mark on the Kevin Butler character.

We wonder if Bridgestone made a mistake by editing Lambert out of the ad after the Internet began wondering why the Sony guy was playing a Wii on TV. By doing so, might the tire folks be admitting that having a man who is closely identified with the PlayStation playing a competitor’s console in a national TV ad could cause confusion to some people?

Sony Sues Actor Who Abandoned PlayStation for Nintendo Wii [Hollywood Reporter]

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