Band name issues

deltdrum

Senior Member
My band "WHALE" has built a fairly solid following in my hometown. Our guitarist claimed to have checked the name to make sure that there weren't others, but as it turns out, he did nothing of the sort.

There's a band from Sweden with the same name that happened to have found a decent level of success.

Does capitalizing letters change the rights to a name? From the get-go, I've been dead set on a short, fully capitalized name (looks bigger on posters), and we even told people that it is spelled with all caps.

I only ask, because we've been trying to find a new name for about 3 weeks and have gotten nowhere.
 
Almost certainly capitalizing means nothing. What can cause issues is if there is sufficient reason that the original band might come to think that you are stealing potential consumers away from them by causing brand confusion.

This used to happen all the time back in the day. You know, before the internet and Google and things.

If your genre of music is the same genre the original Whale plays, it will make the situation worse. Time for you, or the band as a whole, to spend some time on the internet trying to come up with something truly unique. May I suggest not leaving it up to your guitarist this time?
 
I'm in the legal field, and although my expertise is not band names I would think that as long as your band is also not from Sweden or will not play live there you may be ok. Not sure about the captialization thing. You could add an exclamation point at the end of your name..

WHALE!

My brother's band was recently sued by another band with the same name here in the U.S. who claimed there name was legally registered, citing copyright infringement. Different story. If you and the other band are in the same country I would see legal help. If not you should be ok. Worst case is you keep the Whale name, and recevie a Cease and Desist lette rfrom the other band's lawyer (doubt that would happen though) and your band changes it's name.
 
WHALE!

You just saved us a lot of trouble sir. I can't believe I didn't think of that. Plus it's even more over the top than before.

Thanks for the help!
 
What about adding the preffix "THE", would that change the legal point of view?

THE WHALE
 
Similar issue happend with Wrathchild America and Wrathchild UK in the late 80s; you can see from the names how a judge ruled when push came to shove . . .

Can you live with 'Whale America'? (sounds like commentary on the U.S. growing obescity issue)

As mentioned above, you could opt for the 'The Whale' which also happens to align you closer to Mellville and a literary reference.
 
We did look into "The" a bit, but it was kind of a mutual decision to avoid that prefix.

We've also tooled around with the name "Led Zeppelin", but it just didn't roll off the tongue right.
 
I think two exclamation marks plus a stipulation that it should be in bold, italic and minimum 7 font:

WHALE!!

That's gotta make a splash ... <groooooaaannnnn>
 
This gets my vote... as the "h" isn't contributing anything in terms of pronunciation:

WALE (exclamation mark(s) is/are optional)

Try to avoid the plural form though ;-)
 
We already looked into WALE actually (I love the look of 4 letter names).

1.5 million fans on facebook.

I just found out that facebook has a new policy on page names. No capitals, or exclamation points. We got grandfathered in on our old name "WHALE", but the system won't let us change it to "WHALE!".

I wish I lived in the days before social media...
 
This gets my vote... as the "h" isn't contributing anything in terms of pronunciation:

WALE (exclamation mark(s) is/are optional)

Try to avoid the plural form though ;-)

Unfortunately, WALE is already a rappers name.
Pronounced "Wa-lay" or something.

Maybe put some random words infront of it? That can tend to get a little ridiculous though, haha
 
The more times I see it, the better name "WHALE" becomes.

Why don't you try contacting the Swedish Whale and seeing if they even care in the first place. Maybe they have not registered their name and you can still beat them in the race to the courthouse here
 
How about...

KILLER WHALE

??

If worse comes to worse you can morph your group into a Great White tribute band.
 
I'm in the legal field, and although my expertise is not band names I would think that as long as your band is also not from Sweden or will not play live there you may be ok. Not sure about the captialization thing. You could add an exclamation point at the end of your name..

WHALE!

My brother's band was recently sued by another band with the same name here in the U.S. who claimed there name was legally registered, citing copyright infringement. Different story. If you and the other band are in the same country I would see legal help. If not you should be ok. Worst case is you keep the Whale name, and recevie a Cease and Desist lette rfrom the other band's lawyer (doubt that would happen though) and your band changes it's name.

This seems to make sense.

But I think it would be better if you changed your name to, "Whaleasouraus"
 
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