Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Colorado

Re: Band Names

Have they been active in the US marketplace?

How about your band?

Are you members of ASCAP?

Call or email for further assistance.

Re: Band Names

How Do I Protect the Name of My Band?

By Michael McCready

Attorney at Law

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The two key concepts involved in "protecting" the name of a band are "territory" and "priority". Territory means the area where you use the name, e.g., Chicago, Illinois, Mid-West, United States, world-wide, etc. Priority, as the word implies, involves who uses the name first. These two concepts work together to limit the scope of protection for a name.

If you started using your name first, you can prevent others from using it. However, the law allows you exclusive use of the name only in the area where you have used it. For example, if you started playing the Chicagoland area in 1989 and never played or distributed music outside the Chicagoland area, you could not prevent a band from using the name in Florida. However, they could not use the band name in Chicagoland since you were the first to use the band name there. You also may acquire the rights to your name for Chicago in 1989 and nation-wide in 1992 when you release your first record for a major. If someone started using your name in another part of the country in 1990, you could not prevent their use in their territory since they have priority in that area.

Re: Band Names

It will depend where they have filed their mark, if anywhere. Feel free to contact me on this; my firm focuses on Internet and entertainment law.