www.music-law.com takes the
guesswork out of trade marking your bands name. If you have a unique
name that you want associated with your music, then you should take
steps to protect that name, because as you grow and succeed, that name
will epitomize you.
They go on to say:
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.
A famous case involved two bands both performing under the name,
“Flash”. The first was a small band in San Francisco who had never
recorded a record and the second was an English band that had a major
label deal. Since the San Francisco “Flash” was a prior user in that
area, the English “Flash” was not allowed to sell albums in the Bay
area.
Before investing money in the name of your band, you should investigate
whether anyone else is already using the name. If someone is already
using your name, as explained above, they have priority in their
territory.
This Information is Brought to You By “EZ Record Deal”, the ultimate
guide to getting a record deal. Visit EZ Record Deal now by going to http://www.EZRecordDeal.com
Linda Lane
is a 5 star writer for The Music Business Center, read more of her
music business success articles and subscribe to the Music Biz Center
blog free of charge at http://www.MusicBizCenter.com/blog
