Hastings Communications and Entertainment Law Journal Volume 14 | Number 3 Article 1 1-1-1992 A Rose by Any Other Name: Trademark Protection of the Names of Popular Music Groups Barbara Singer Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/ hastings_comm_ent_law_journal Part of the Communications Law Commons, Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Commons, and the Intellectual Property Law Commons Recommended Citation Barbara Singer, A Rose by Any Other Name: Trademark Protection of the Names of Popular Music Groups, 14 Hastings Comm. & Ent. L.J. 331 (1992). Available at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_comm_ent_law_journal/vol14/iss3/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hastings Communications and Entertainment Law Journal by an authorized editor of UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. A Rose by Any Other Name: Trademark Protection of the Names of Popular Music Groups by BARBARA SINGER* Table of Contents I. Establishing Ownership of Trademarks in the Names of Popular M usic Groups .................................... 335 A. Ownership as Determined Under the Principles of Federal Trademark Law ............................. 335 1. Validity of the M ark .............................. 337 a. Popular Music Group Names as Marks ........ 337 b. Distinctiveness of a Group's Name as a Mark.. 339 c. Secondary M eaning ............................ 344 2. Ownership of a Mark in a Popular Music Group N am e ............................................ 346 a. Priority of Appropriation ...................... 347 b. C ontrol ....................................... 349 c. Abandonment ................................. 352 B. Contractual Allocations of Group Names ............. 355 II.