Business Notes LITIGATION

Bradley Weidman thought he could bank on the sugarbowl remembrance of a 1930s child movie star when he named his new soft drink the Shirley T. What the 26- year-old entrepreneur from Encino, Calif., did not count on was the marketing savvy of Shirley Temple Black, 60, former Ambassador to Ghana and a Republican activist. Black, who has granted manufacturers 163 licenses in the past 50 years for everything from Shirley Temple dolls and music boxes to greeting cards, is suing Weidman for using her name without permission.

Weidman, whose sales reached $200,000 last year, defends his drink's name by arguing that "Shirley Temple" has become part of the English language and thus is no longer a trademark. After all, he notes, when bartenders mix ginger ale and grenadine to make a Shirley Temple, they do not need Black's permission. The difference, Black counters, is that bartenders, unlike Weidman, are not trying to push a product.