erica234427 rants...
I bought Sorry For Party Rockin\' and was pretty dissappointed. It wasnt as good as I expected. Oh w ...
HOME FIND MUSIC MEET PEOPLE SEARCH JOIN!
Forgot username or password?
MUSIC NEWS
OTHER STUFF
Greg Ginn loses lawsuit against members of FLAG, Henry Rollins
Posted on 2013-10-12 03:00:11
Artist/band(s): Black Flag [FB]

musicnews View: Profile - All Posts
Source: http://www.punknews.org/article/53246/greg-ginn-loses-lawsuit-against-members-of-flag-henry-rollins


Greg Ginn has lost his lawsuit against members of FLAG and Henry Rollins, Spin reports. The suit, filed back in August, alleged that the FLAG name and related imagery infringe upon the Black Flag trademark, of which Ginn claimed ownership. Interestingly, Ginn did not actually file for trademark registration for Black Flag-related marks until June 2013, a year after Keith Morris and Henry Rollins claimed ownership of the marks in the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The suit also alleged that when Chuck Dukowski sued Ginn in 2007, the parties settled and as part of the settlement, Dukowski disclaimed any ownership of Black Flag-related marks. The court's findings are as follows:

(1) the court found that SST had no rights in the trademarks;

(2) Ginn seemed to have no individual rights in the Black Flag trademarks;

(3) even if either had had any rights in those marks, they had abandoned those rights through a failure to police the mark for nearly 30 years;

(4) the defendants' claim that the Black Flag assets were owned by a statutory partnership comprised of various former band members – even if these members only consisted of Henry and Ginn, based on (a) accepting Ginn's argument that he never quit and given that there is no evidence or allegation that Henry ever quit – has merit;

(5) that even if the plaintiffs had some trademark claim in the marks, there was no likelihood of consumer confusion between Black Flag and Flag given the ample press coverage over the dispute; and

(6) the trademark application and registration that Henry and Keith made was done in good faith (e.g. not fraudulently) – and is thus not necessarily subject to cancellation – given that they understood their actions to have been done on the part of the Black Flag partnership (see No. 4, above)



As you can see above, the judge weirdly ruled that Rollins never actually quit Black Flag, a band he hasn't been in since 1986.



UPDATE 1:30 p.m. ET: Rolling Stone reports that Ginn has simply been denied a preliminary injunction, which means the lawsuit will continue but that he cannot stop FLAG from their activities as of right now.

RELATED NEWS

Podcast: Episode 292: Grindcore Hello Kitty
Related Artist/Band(s): Black Flag [FB]  Napalm Death [FB]  Bad Brains [FB]  The Hives [FB] 
Ron Reyes to (mostly) retire from music
Related Artist/Band(s): Black Flag [FB] 
Former Black Flag Bassist Won An Oscar
Related Artist/Band(s): Black Flag [FB] 
Videos: Rare Black Flag performances available to watch for the first time
Related Artist/Band(s): Black Flag [FB] 
New Review Update: September 18, 2015
Related Artist/Band(s): Less Than Jake [FB]  Black Flag [FB]  Circle Jerks [FB] 
Page -
Page -
AllRespect.com // Greg Ginn loses lawsuit against members of FLAG, Henry Rollins
This site has 2 goals:
  1. Find Music that you will love
  2. Meet People who share your great taste in music
If this sounds like your kinda place, why not join?