Register the name of a band

[Jack Real]

Hi

Can someone tell me where we can register the name of a band (to ensure the copyrights) ? Also, is it expensive ?

Thanks,

Jack Real.

 

[MadAudio]

You have to get a trademark, and that can take years. You can't copyright a name. For more info, go here: http://www.uspto.gov/

 

[andyhix]

my understanding has always been that it's based on precedent. If you are/were the first to use a particular name, then you own it. You just need a way to document it. A newspaper ad for a show, recorded music, etc. Maybe you could even take a dated document and have it notarized or something. I don't know maybe notaries can't just sign off on any old thing you bring them...

 

[Jack Real]

Hi

Thanks for the answers. The only two instances of conflict that I'm aware of is in the 80s when "The English Beat" had to had "English" in their name because the name "The Beat" was already taken. More recently, Axel Rose and "Velvet Revolvers" had a fight for the use of the name "Gun & Roses". For some reasons, the name belongs to Axel Rose. I know there are some other conflicts about band names and it's usually due to bands breaking up.

/Jack Real.

 

[Robertt8]

yeah, as far as i can tell they are both pretty much right. you can do this the "legal" way and spend thousands of thousands of dollars on lawyers and forms, or you can just do a thorough check of the internet (including artists sites like http://www.allmusic.com , http://artistdirect.com/ http://ubl.com/ ), and see if you see your name, then search google, amazon, all those places, and if you don't see it, just start using it. The trick is to make that name famous before anyone else does. There are also many instances of duplicate names (for example, there are two Jack Johnsons in the music industry...one is the acoustic surf rock guy, and one is an old blues musician). as long as people are not going to mistake the bands (like buying the wrong CD), you'll most likely be ok.

good luck!

 

[Dani Pace]

You can check with band registry.com to see if anyone else is already using the name you have in mind. I'm not sure how valid their registry system is but they have a lot of listings from all over the world.

 

[Eagertone]

band registry is good. it doesn't do any of the copyright stuff for you, BUT it does time stamp a date to when you registered the name. thus, if you ever did go to court, you can use it to show that "look, i registered the name on XX-XX-XXXX, so i thought of it first..."

kind of like the old mailing a cd to yourself trick to copyright music.