Racial Protests Exposed Costly Trademark Dispute For Solo Creator

Regardless of race, the lawsuit described below likely caused many solos, small, new, and established trademark owners to check their marks because the issue of what caused the suit in the first place can happen in any industry.

“Band Lady A versus Singer Lady A: How racial protest exposed a costly slip-up by artists in the music industry” by Dee Adams on Medium details overlooked issues.

Although the lawsuit has been presented from a racial angle, the primary issue is not about race.
Instead, the lesson of the lawsuit for others is how one may overlook follow-up steps after registering a mark.

The racial controversy slant was triggered by a famous band formerly known as Lady Antellebum who used race for public relations purposes with disastrous results.

“On June 11, the country trio changed its name to Lady A, saying that they were, in retrospect, “regretful and embarrassed” that they hadn’t considered the loaded and racist history of “antebellum.” This was despite the fact that journalists had challenged them about it for years.”  NPR, July 9, 2020

Sources

The preceding post is a  short version of the original article. The longer version was hand-picked by the tech editor of Medium’s Illumination-Curated for inclusion in their publication.

Medium.com/illumination-curated, Sept. 3, 2021
https://medium.com/illumination-curated/hand-picked-articles-13-10033f922e36

Medium.com/Band A Versus Singer Lady A, Dee Adams, Sept. 2, 2021
https://medium.com/illumination/band-lady-a-versus-singer-lady-a-de9733d4961a 

Npr.org/live-updates-protests-for-racial-justice
https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-protests-for-racial-justice/2020/07/09/889355126/lady-a-the-band-sues-lady-a-the-singer