Update! Freakin Trademark Infringement" Letter! We need a new band name!

[Stormchaser]

I have a small trio that plays in the Moose Jaw Saskatchewan area. We just received a letter from some lawyers in Vancouver that our name is too similar to this other guys name who does work in Alberta and Ontario....and by work I mean recording 2 songs and putting up a myspace page. seriously, myspace??? Guy doesn't even have a facebook page.....

Looks like they have trademarked their name and when it is pronounced it sounds the same as ours...but we spell our name differently. Honestly, I don't really care about our name enough to fight it our against homeboy rapper dude but I don't like being bullied either. Our band plays maybe once every couple of months and we just do it to make some extra cash once and a while. So do they have the right to make us change our name even though we are in different provinces?

Do any CPers have any experience with this sort of thing. Any advice would be greatly appreciated as they have given us until April 12th to quit operating under our current name or they will commence a "trademark infringement action in the Federal court of Canada"

Updated!

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

Soul Whyte...He looks popular.

http://www.fortsaskatchewanrecord.co...onal-attention

Alright, now that we got that out of the way, I've made the decision to let the homboy have his name all to himself. So I guess we are gonna need a new name and there have been some excellent suggestions so far......

1. Jagged Martian Buttplugs
2. the Rolling Stoneds
3. a%% Plunderers from Planet X
4. The Trademark Infringements
5. Lots of death from Devils Advocate.......post 27
6. Guitarded
7. Rockreation
8. Buster Hymen and The Penetrators
9. SoulwhiteX
10. Mailed Bag of Dicks
11. To Be Quite Honest retracts his original suggestion..... replaced by "Forever Unclean" and...
11b. Fear Boner
12. Punctured Colostomy Bag
13. Seriously Infected Love Pump
14. B Sharps
15. The Spit
16. Number 8
17. BAMF!, Canadian bacon, The guilty 3
18. Riffin' 'n' Booze
19. 'F.T.I.' - frickin trademark infringement
20. The Norythmics
21. Stupid Lawyers
22. P. Terz Rim Yak Killed Soul White
23. Eh See Dee Sea, Arrow Smyth, The Beetles, You Too
24. Dirt, Gusts, and Flames
25. The artists formerly known as Soulwhite
26. Taken Down By Lawyers
27. unimaginative
28. Morning Wood
29. Our Lawyers Made Us Change The Name Of This Band So We Wouldn't Get Sued - OLMUCTNOTBSWWGS
30. Muff Buffalo's
31. Moose Jaw, Sid's broken Moose Jaw
32. Registered Trademark
33. The Punt and Rocksuckers
34. Moose Jaw and sons
35. Sweet Chili Heat
36. Jack Whyte Soul Asylum
37. Jack Meehoff and the Strokin' Motions
38. The Wandering Finger .........there seems to be a pattern here.....
39. Richard Licker
40. below 3 degrees ( below 3°)
41. Wite Sole. Then wait for another letter, then Whyte Soel
42. Loded Diper
43. Bullsnakes, Harvester, Neon Soul
44. Notsoulwhite
45. Albino Thunderfunk
46. The barking moose
47. Je Booty, The Stray Tough Whore Muses, HOT DOG, Bang Caulk
48. Whyte Infringement
49. Chum Sifter, The Pekanese, Cunning Dingus
50. Curly Bad Boy Lee
51. The In Sex
52. Bird Bath Brain, The Craigslist Casual Encounters
53. The Benevolant Bird Bath Brains
54. Milla Vanilla
55. Smud
56. Armada Featuring Herman Menderchuk
57. Audible Penetration
58. Bukkake Nuns
59. Keytarded
60. Why Teh Seoul
61. Seouled Out
62. Statutory Grape, Daft Plunk, Buy Our Music, #######s
63. Moose Jaw Knuckle
64. Below 3 degreees (below 3°), Soulplay, White Moose, Soul 306, The White Souls, Soulist Wonders
65. Lots of sex from saskflames69
66. Broken Dollars
67. Purple Headed Womb Ferrets
68. Soulwhyte Killers
69. Flagpoles and Buttholes
70. Whitey McWhitington and the Blazin' Caucasians
71. Kings of Da Bien
72. Soul Infringement, Soul Perpetrators, Trademark Soul
73. Soulwhite Mark 2 ......not sure if that helped Captain!




I'll update this with the new suggestions from CP and hopefully find a winner before our next performance sometime next winter. So far "The Split" is in the lead followed closely by "Guitarded".....although there aren't any guitarists in the band. Thanks again for the help!

[Minnie]

Did you google the lawyers names, or the law office name that sent the letter? Might check if it's legit before panicking.

[miraisoup]

But if it is legit, i think you pretty much have to change the name.

[Stormchaser]

Looks pretty legit to me....the lawyers that is.

http://www.lmlaw.ca/

[DuffMan]

I think the guy who hates dogs might have some experience with this.

[Resolute 14]

As always with legal matters, trust lawyers, not CPers, but one question: Were you using that band name prior to their filing the trademark? If so, I think that puts their claim at risk.

[handgroen]

Originally Posted by DuffMan

I think the guy who hates dogs might have some experience with this.

just walk away from your name buddy, anyone who's willing to take legal action is screwy enough to be taken seriously.

or you can do what my band did and buy beer for one of your dads, and get him to come to contract meetings in a suit and claim he's your "representative."

[CaptainCrunch]

Who knew that there were two bands named Jagged Martian Buttplugs out there let alone in the same country

[onetwo_threefour]

There's not enough info in the OP for anyone to give an informed opinion. Call an IP lawyer and get advice.

[Stormchaser]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

As always with legal matters, trust lawyers, not CPers, but one question: Were you using that band name prior to their filing the trademark? If so, I think that puts their claim at risk.

Nope, I think they claim to have the name "trademarked" before we even started.

What is lame is we are in separate provinces and the names are not spelled the same. Judging by his discography, he isn't going to be wearing any gold diapers any time soon.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by stormchaser

Nope, I think they claim to have the name "trademarked" before we even started.

What is lame is we are in separate provinces and the names are not spelled the same. Judging by his discography, he isn't going to be wearing any gold diapers any time soon.

I remember when the band Bush released their 1st album in Canada, they had to call it; "Bushx" because some Canadian band had the name "Bush" trademarked.

I would think, based on that, that spelling differences account for something, but that's just anecdotal.

[Stormchaser]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

I remember when the band Bush released their 1st album in Canada, they had to call it; "Bushx" because some Canadian band had the name "Bush" trademarked.

I would think, based on that, that spelling differences account for something, but that's just anecdotal.

exactly! maybe we can put a "The better version of" in front of ours......

[troutman]

http://music.directlegal.com/dlm_tg_...ame_search.htm

http://www.uspto.gov/faq/musicart.jsp

http://www.canadaone.com/ezine/exper...qa.html?id=139

[DuffMan]

Change it to "the Rolling Stoneds"

[jammies]

Any doofus can get a lawyer to write a letter claiming whatever. Actually taking it to court costs real money some dude with a couple of songs and a myspace page is extremely unlikely to want to spend. I would ignore the letter and see where it goes before committing any resources of my own to defending myself.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer but I am an expert at masterful procrastination.

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by stormchaser

I have a small trio that plays in the Moose Jaw Saskatchewan area. We just received a letter from some lawyers in Vancouver that our name is too similar to this other guys name who does work in Alberta and Ontario....and by work I mean recording 2 songs and putting up a myspace page. seriously, myspace??? Guy doesn't even have a facebook page.....

Looks like they have trademarked their name and when it is pronounced it sounds the same as ours...but we spell our name differently. Honestly, I don't really care about our name enough to fight it our against homeboy rapper dude but I don't like being bullied either. Our band plays maybe once every couple of months and we just do it to make some extra cash once and a while. So do they have the right to make us change our name even though we are in different provinces?

Do any CPers have any experience with this sort of thing. Any advice would be greatly appreciated as they have given us until April 12th to quit operating under our current name or they will commence a "trademark infringement action in the Federal court of Canada"

The other side paid some real money to have a lawyer write you a letter.

You play publicly only every few months for a bit of cash.

It's a pure business decision. The fight isn't worth your time.

Have a naming contest on CP and move on.

Cowperson

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by jammies

Any doofus can get a lawyer to write a letter claiming whatever. Actually taking it to court costs real money some dude with a couple of songs and a myspace page is extremely unlikely to want to spend. I would ignore the letter and see where it goes before committing any resources of my own to defending myself.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer but I am an expert at masterful procrastination.

That's true. One of my old landlords kept saying that I would get my damage deposit back, but kept stalling for a year. I had my wife's step dad send him a letter on his law office's letterhead and got my money quickly. I never would have taken it to court though.

[Bend it like Bourgeois]

For sure you will want a real legal opinion, and you can likely get a good picture of where you stand for only a little money.

Just remember their position may be a matter of opinion, not fact, and people bluff all the time. They are possibly no more able or interested in costly legal battle than you are. THe fact that they lead with a threat would really make me wonder.

[Stormchaser]

Originally Posted by jammies

Any doofus can get a lawyer to write a letter claiming whatever. Actually taking it to court costs real money some dude with a couple of songs and a myspace page is extremely unlikely to want to spend. I would ignore the letter and see where it goes before committing any resources of my own to defending myself.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer but I am an expert at masterful procrastination.

Ha! This was my initial reaction. Having worked along side many artists throughout my musical career, he doesn't strike me as the one who would really want to pursue this.........his mommy or daddy on the other hand........

[Stormchaser]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

The other side paid some real money to have a lawyer write you a letter.

You play publicly only every few months for a bit of cash.

It's a pure business decision. The fight isn't worth your time.

Have a naming contest on CP and move on.

Cowperson

This is very true, not worth the money or the time. This could go a couple of ways. Call his bluff and he leaves us alone because he is a starving musician with 30 twitter followers, or he runs to his parents who take us to court. Not worth the risk. I suppose its all fair if he indeed does own the trademark as well in Saskatchewan....although that just doesn't quite sit right.....

I also think he forgets how small the music industry actually is in Canada...