Can I choose a Band Name someone else already uses???

bandwithnoname

Hello all,
Though our band has yet to choose a suitable name, hence our current one, I'm a little confused by the matter. For instance there seem to be about 20 "Bands With No Names". Who gets to be the original, and is there anything to stop someone else having the same name. I had a look at the www.bandreg.com site and there seems to often be loads of different bands with the same names. While this probably isn't a problem with small unsigned acts, what if (as inevitably shall happen!) we were to get more famous. Could a band, which claim they have been using a name for longer force us to change ours?

Is there some official way, that is not expensive of making a name your own, or shall we have to come up with something so terrible, that nobody else would have though of using it before?

I'd appreciate your knowledgeable advice.

Here is our current incarnation...

www.bandwithnoname.tk

sodiumlightbaby

Register the name as a compnay in the companies office..only costs you a few quid - 50 euro or something

mumblin deaf ro

As I understand it, if you started using the name in a particular country first, then the rights to it are yours, even if a long established band has been using it elsewhere for years.

For example, there's an American band from the 60's called the Chralatans. They continue to have the rights to that name in the US, but the Chralatans we know and love can use it in the UK and Europe as no earlier use of it was established.

In terms of practical advice for your band, you probably only need to satisfy yourself that your band's name is not in use in Ireland already. Perhaps a speculative email to IMRO would be a start. Alternatively, there are any number of books on 'how to avoid getting screwed in the music biz' - flick open one of those and it'll give you more watertight advice.

Tyrrial

ok...

then why did blink 182 have to change there name when legal action from blink was going to force them?

the fnj

It's to do with releases, if you have released something in a certain territory you get the rights to the name.

A good example would be with the Frames, everything they release in America is released under the name the Frames DC because there was a band in America a few years ago called the Frames.

Nirvana had to pay for the rights to the name in the UK because some band had released material years ago under the name Nirvana.

So either get releasing before the other guys or get original.

mumblin deaf ro

You don't necessarily have to release something, just be able to establish in a Court that you have an existing use of the name in the territory concerned.

I know for a fact that (the irish) Blink have toured the States at least twice, so i guess that set an established use whereby Blink 182 had to change to their current name.

bandwithnoname

thanks for all the advice guys

knobbles

IMRO have a list of related FAQ's
www.imro.ie