Trek Farley: Chris Farley's family settles lawsuit over fat bikes

Trek Bicycle says the family of the late "Saturday Night Live" star Chris Farley has settled a federal lawsuit against the Wisconsin-based company for naming its fat-tired bikes Farley.

Trek spokesman Eric Bjorling tells The Associated Press the settlement was reached Wednesday. The settlement will allow Trek to continue making Farley bikes, although the terms of the agreement are confidential. 

The family had alleged that Trek had misappropriated Farley's name and traded on his "fat guy" brand of comedy.

The lawsuit claimed that Farley "carefully guarded and policed his brand," rejecting overtures from companies he felt did not warrant it, and even feared that losing weight would jeopardize his brand as a comedian. 

The lawsuit added that Farley "for nearly three decades linked and associated with his … persona and his identity as a fat comic actor willing to go into comic territories others would not seek to traverse," according to the Wisconsin State Journal.

Chris Farley was born and raised in Madison, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from Waterloo, where Trek is based. He died in Chicago in 1997 from a drug overdose.

An attorney for Make Him Smile, a company founded and run by Farley's family to protect his publicity and property rights, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.