Robert Burck will not be in Times Square today. The Naked Cowboy must be in court.

With his trademark infringement trial against Mars Inc. moving forward since being filed in February, Burck — who's accused the M&M's company of ripping off his look with a Times Square billboard and in-store display showing his likeness in candy form — is out to prove he's entitled to $4 million in total damages.

But the company behind the candy bowl favorite has quite a defense planned:

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Copyright is a tricky thing. On the one hand, big guys like the Associated Press has absolutely no concept of it. On the other, little guys like the Naked Cowboy have totally learned how to use it to their advantage. Having sued Mars Inc. over a M&M's billboard in Times Square that showed a blue M&M dressed in his trademark boots and briefs, a federal judge just ruled that the case can move forward, leaving the city's most famous underwear strummer, real name Robert Burck, thinking, "I've got $4 million coming my way." And he could very well be right. But throughout this whole ordeal we can't help but thinking Burck, who has auditioned for everything from American Idol to Star Search, has based his entire business model on this very opportunity: Get so quirky famous that a brand would pay him for an endorsement deal (actually, he's appeared in Chevrolet and Guinness ads), or they'd try to rip him off so bad he could sue. Brava.

After the success of M&M's personalization effort that let customers stamp any (brief) message on their candies (someone sent us a few bags of these), they're going one step further: Allowing customers to upload photos to its website and have someone's face printed on the little, yummy, addictive, OMG we want some now chocolates.

And while they may have stolen the idea from birthday cakes, this isn't M&M's first user-generated stunt.

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