FROM "DIAMOND DAVE" TO "PLAINTIFF DAVE"

David Lee Roth is suing a Van Halen e-tailer for fraud.

The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, accuses vanhalenstore.com of selling fake merchandise, some of which includes forged signatures, on its site. Canelles Design Group, The Inside magazine, Hostmaster/Datapipe and HiSpeed Posting are named as defendants.

According to Launch, the site claims to be an official Van Halen outlet, boasting to have "the world's largest variety of official Van Halen merchandise...Official merchandise is merchandise that has been approved by the band. Van Halen receives royalties from all the official merchandise that we sell."

Roth's suit refutes that claim. It maintains neither he nor the other Van Halen members have given authorization to vanhalenstore.com, and that no one has received any royalties.

Roth's attorneys issued a cease-and-desist order in Oct. 2000 to the site, requesting it stop selling merchandise depicting Diamond Dave.

While no monetary damages have been requested, the suit requests the defendants be barred from dealing in "any further falsely represented Van Halen ‘official' merchandise, or any other Van Halen or Roth merchandise of any kind."

Said Roth: "The suit will prove the kid isn't mine. Now where do I take my blood test?"

.