Rick Ross defeats Rick Ross.

Rick Ross will be able to keep his name. Back in 2010, former drug dealer Freeway Rick Ross filed a lawsuit in California’s appeal court against the Miami rapper for infringement of his name. The court battle raged on for three years but now the official verdict is in and Ricky Rozay came out victorious. Judge Roger Boren claimed that Rozay was fully protected under the first amendment.

“We recognize that Roberts’ work — his music and persona as a rap musician — relies to some extent on plaintiff’s name and persona. Roberts chose to use the name ‘Rick Ross.’ He raps about trafficking in cocaine and brags about his wealth. These were ‘raw materials’ from which Roberts’ music career was synthesized. But these are not the ‘very sum and substance’ of Roberts’ work.”

“Roberts created a celebrity identity, using the name Rick Ross, of a cocaine kingpin turned rapper. He was not simply an impostor seeking to profit solely off the name and reputation of Rick Ross. Rather, he made music out of fictional tales of dealing drugs and other exploits—some of which related to plaintiff. Using the name and certain details of an infamous criminal’s life as basic elements, he created original artistic work.”

The Bill of Rights came in the clutch. Not like there was any doubt, but the reining Rick Ross namesake is here for good.

– Tony Centeno (@_tonyMC)