Beastie Boys have filed a lawsuit against Brinker International, the parent company of the Chili’s restaurant chain, for allegedly using their hit song “Sabotage” without permission and featuring characters that resemble the band members from the song’s famous music video.

The surviving members of the Beastie Boys, Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock) and Michael Diamond (Mike D), along with the estate of the late Adam Yauch (MCA), initiated legal action on Wednesday, July 10th. They accuse Brinker International of copyright infringement and trademark violations.

According to the lawsuit, Brinker International used “Sabotage” in a social media advertisement for Chili’s, and the ad’s visuals closely resembled those from the “Sabotage” music video. An excerpt from the lawsuit reads:

“Commencing at some time unknown to plaintiffs but, they are informed and believe, no earlier than November 2022, Brinker produced, sponsored, and encouraged the creation and posting on social media of videos to promote Brinker’s ‘Chili’s’ restaurants that included musical compositions and sound recordings that were used without the permission of the rights owners. One such video used, without Plaintiffs’ permission or consent, significant portions of the musical composition and sound recording of ‘Sabotage’ (the ‘Unauthorized Chili’s Video’). Further, Brinker synchronized Plaintiffs’ ‘Sabotage’ musical composition and sound recording with other visual material in the Unauthorized Chili’s Video, in which three characters wearing obvious 70s-style wigs, fake mustaches, and sunglasses who were intended to evoke the three members of Beastie Boys performed scenes depicting them ‘robbing’ ingredients from a Chili’s restaurant intercut with fictitious opening credits, in ways obviously similar to and intended to evoke in the minds of the public scenes from Plaintiff’s well-known Official ‘Sabotage’ video. Use of the ‘Sabotage’ sound recording, music composition and video was all without permission; the plaintiffs do not license ‘Sabotage’ or any of their other intellectual property for third-party product advertising purposes, and deceased Beastie Boys member Adam Yauch included a provision in his will prohibiting such uses.”

Beastie Boys are aiming to prevent Brinker from any future infringements and are seeking “an award of statutory damages … pursuant to the Copyright Act in an amount in each case of not less than $150,000 for the willful infringement of the Beastie Boys Musical Composition, and the Beastie Boys Sound Recordings or … actual damages and profits with respect to each of the foregoing copyrights as permitted under the Copyright Act, in an amount to be determined at trial.”

In 2014, the Beastie Boys secured a $1.7 million judgment against Monster Beverage for unauthorized use of their music.

Additionally, Adam Yauch’s will includes a provision that prohibits the use of any Beastie Boys music in commercials for third-party products.