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ok, so this is the story, our band is called Divine Chaos, we're from virginia, US, but there is this band from the UK, also called Divine Chaos. So today we got and e-mail from their management saying this:

To Whom This may Concern,

My name is Ben i manage a band in the UK called Divine Chaos, which have been established for some time and own the copyrights to the name, the songs, and also have a publishing deal which reinforces this. I am very sorry but i have been advised to ask you if you could change your name as, 1. it is illegal, 2. it is unfair on our behalf as your band and site will gain hits and attention from the thousands of pounds Divine Chaos spend annually on advertising, marketing and promotion. I do not mean to come across as being unreasonable, however if you were in the same position you would be advised to do the same.

please email me with any queries as i wish for the transaction to as smoothly as possible, apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

P.s you are extremely talented musicians.

Thankyou,

Ben / DC Management



But then our friend did research on this thing of copyright and trademark and it said you cannot copyright a name but you can trademark or something like that. and then he look online on archives and theres nothing under the name Divine Chaos not in the US or the UK.

We were thinking maybe he's just Liying to us or something. So we're still deciding to change our name or say screw you.

what do you guys think?


If you wanna see a video of us playing or also, soon we will be putting some music, we're just finishing the demo. Check:

myspace.com/divinechaos1

well ya but people might be confuised by the two if say they have heard oif both then it might be better to vchange it anyway

*coughattheraconteurs/saboteursscenario*

I did a 15-minute google crawl and pretty much would suggest this course of action: negotiate with them. They seem to be on their way "up", and even have their own MySpace as well ( http://www.myspace.com/divinechaosband ). If we compare membership join dates, you predate them by a good two months--but that's flimsy evidence that won't back up when the band actually started.

You might want to raise these points with them:
*. whether they're planning to play only in their province/country (because legally there should be no issues if that is the case),
*. if they have signed a recording contract,
*. and WHY this so-called manager said that they've "copyrighted" the band name, which is total bullshit as scores of reputable websites have said near-nothing about a worldwide trademark registration (I might be wrong in this case)

They have no possible way to force you to change unless they're more famous than you on your home turf, as far as I can see. And even then, the internet is almost a free-for-all where everyone's concerned; there's even another Divine Chaos band somewhere in Canada.

References:
http://onstagemag.com/ar/performance_making_mark_secure/
http://www.ubl.com/nrp/content/faq.php
http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/15902
http://www.apra.com.au/writers/FAQ/bandnames.asp
http://www.garageband.com/help/infringements411.html

On the note of copyrighting names of bands, anyone else see that Tommy Lee and the gang (the producers of Rockstar: Supernova as a whole) are getting sued by a band in southern California, who claims that theyve been releasing albums and touring with the name Supernova since 1990? Should be interesting to see if the little guy triumphs over money this time around. . .

No problems.

But y'know, anyone who's got time to spare, half a brain, two hands, a computer and an internet connection should learn how to research; and Google is all you need.

all Ill say is that Linkin Park's original name was Hybrid Theory, they had to change it because some band called Hybrid sued their asses so...yeah

Actually, I think the band was called 'The Hybrid'. Which means that if my band ever takes off, we're probably gonna have to change our name too, We're 'Hybrid Synapse'.

>.>
<.<

And, As far as I'm aware, Its impossible to copyright something like that, but I'm probably wrong

we're just gonna keep it, f**k them, we're in different countries, and it's not like any of us is going to get famous soon. you never know but yeh.