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The Cowboy – a guitar-strumming, 10-gallon-hat-and-skivvies-wearing fixture in Times Square – is suing Mars Inc. for trademark infringement, claiming the candy giant's blue M&M was dressed to look like him, thus allegedly constituting a false endorsement.
The street entertainer, whose real name is Robert Burck, won his right to take his case to trial, the Associated Press reports. Mars says it was merely exercising its First Amendment right, and the costumed candy was a parody.
"Sounds like I've got $4 million coming my way," Burck told the New York Post after hearing of Judge Denny Chin's decision on Monday.
Even so, in a PEOPLE poll last February, when the Naked Cowboy's lawyer first submitted his (legal) briefs, readers found the blue M&M sexier than Burck – 67 percent to 33.
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