Using a trademarked name in a song title

Status
Not open for further replies.

johnnyz

New Member
I have a collection of original musical instrumental pieces that I wrote and copyrighted about 10 years ago which I now I intend to publish on CD. I just found out that the title to one my compositions is now the name of a local rock band in California who trademarked their band name 3 years ago.

Will publishing my piece of music constitute any type of infringement on the band whose trademarked name is the same as the title of my piece? I know that I can just change the title, but I would rather keep the original title if possible.
 
Last edited:
Just because a band trademarked their name, which might be words, doesn't mean you can't use it. If a band called themselves "Big Loud Tubas" and you wrote a song with the same name, even if the band received a trademark for the name, it shouldn't prevent you from writing a song with the same words. For the most part it would seem common sense but there might be limits, most probably if you're dealing with extremely unique names and the question of usage. For the most part, it's about whether your usage of the words would likely cause confusion in the minds of the average person in the marketplace. Without knowing the exact name and usage it's impossible to answer better than to say "it's certainly possible to use words in a song that happen to also be registered as a trademark." After all, couldn't you have a song "I love U2" or "The Chipmunks are Cute."
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top