Bluewater Productions publishes comic book biographies of popular figures, from Hilary Clinton to Stephenie Meyer, and many of them (such as the Meyer comic) are unauthorized. Now Rich Johnston reports that attorney Kenneth Feinswog has sent the company cease-and-desist notices on behalf of clients who apparently don't appreciate getting the Bluewater treatment: Lady Gaga, the subject of a recently published comic, and Justin Bieber, whose bio-comic is due in October. Both comics are unauthorized biographies.

Feinswog's claim seems to be that the comics are trademark infringements and violate the performers' intellectual property and likeness rights.

Bluewater Publisher Darren G. Davis wouldn't talk to Johnston, but he did confirm that he had received the cease-and-desist orders and offered a response to MTV's Splash Page. His defense is that the works are bona fide biographies and are therefore protected under the First Amendment:

"These are not-poster books and as it was explained to the licensing lawyer, Kenneth Feinswog, it tells the story of [Bieber's] life in 22 pages," he continued. "We offered to send him a copy of the book before it went to print. We have been offered deals with poster books, sticker books and we had to turn them down because we know we do not have the rights to that. But doing an unauthorized biography we are in full within our rights."

Davis also offered the theory that the reason for the action is that Bluewater's comic is competition for Bieber's memoir Justin Bieber: First Step 2 Forever, which is due out this fall, as are several other books about the 16-year-old singer.

There is some precedent for this, but not in Feinswog's favor. In the late 1990s, Revolutionary Comics produced Rock 'N' Roll Comics, unauthorized biographies of rock musicians. Feinswog sued on behalf of New Kids on the Block and Motley Crue, claiming trademark infringement, but the court ruled in favor of the comics. Coincidentally (or perhaps not), Bluewater recently acquired the rights to the Revolutionary line.