Former OU Students File Lawsuit Against Jersey Shore's JWoww

Dana Hertneky, News 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Three former OU students say they were burned by a reality show star when she stole their idea for a tanning lotion.

Now the three men are suing the star and the company that makes the lotion.

Eric Bramlett, Wesley Cox, and Paul Rudnick, say they had been working with Jennifer "Jwoww" Farley from the MTV show "Jersey Shore" and her agent for months on the project. But then suddenly they were cut out of the deal and so far an estimated $300,000 in profits.

According to court papers the three men approached Farley and her agent-boyfriend back in February of 2010 about launching a line of tanning lotion.

The plaintiffs say Farley agreed to the deal and they began work on the bottle, copyrighting four designs and, with revisions, eventually coming up with a final design.

The suit says the bottle design and concept were then pitched to Australian Gold but just as negotiations were wrapping up, Farley's on-screen hook up with fellow cast member "Pauly D" led to a break-up between Farley and her agent.

The plaintiffs say that was that was the last meaningful communication they had with Farley's people.

Farley, however, launched "Jwoww Black Bronzer" and according to her twitter it is the "number one sold tanning lotion."

This led the Oklahoma men to file suit saying in reality, Farley stole their idea and design and froze them out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Neither the plaintiffs nor their attorneys wanted to comment for our story.

The suit was filed in federal court.

The defendants have 60 days to respond