Legal Question in Entertainment Law in Texas

The short answer is YES and NO and OMG and SNAFU. When you allow others to use your service mark (what you applied for was a service mark registration, not a "trademark") uncontested, then you have great difficulty stopping anyone later on. The logic is that why should a Court intervene to protect your band's name when you didn't protect it when you had the chance and should have. You have major problems with protecting your band's name due to long and prominent prior use by others. You need a top notch lawyer (I am one & there are many others) that is experienced in trademark litigation if you are to have any chance to get out of this mess. Location of your lawyer is not nearly as important as the skill of your lawyer, as you will recognize upon reading this. The TDC punk rock band in Phoenix probably has you 5 from San Antonio beat legally unless you play this exactly right. The TDC reggae band in Tucson likewise probably has you beat legally unless you handle this exactly right. Are there others? Call me (618-462-3450) and I can explain why and what you need to do. I handle several bands and have gotten people out of similar situations before. Do not send out a CDL (cease and desist letter) to them until you get your ducks in a row legally or you could lose your band's name. You also have serious problems with your the service mark application apparently self-filed by Chris, which I can explain to you. Also, you should not have posted this on lawguru as someone may tip off your opposition. For example, since you are not yet a client, there is nothing yet to stop me, for example, or any other attorney from simply emailing or picking up the phone and calling up one of the other bands and representing them instead and heaven help you if that happens before you get this cleaned up. Who the heck is advising you legally, to let you do something like this and get into this awful mess? The application lists Chris as correspondent, which implies that you are using self-destruction as your attorney. You are cruisin' for a bruisin' so consider this a top priority item if the name is important to you. To others, the lesson to be learned is that choosing and protecting a band's name is not something for do-it-yourself amateurs, you need good legal representation so it is done right or you, too, could get in this type of jam.