Naming the Band & protecting the Name of Your Band

Naming your band can be a tricky thing. You will obviously want it to be something that everyone can remember, but you also will need to ensure no one and nothing else has the name already. This doesn't only include other bands either. There are companies and many other things that you will need to check before you start broadcasting the name of your new band. The one good part about this is that you will only need to check the area you are planning performing in. That means if you don't plan on ever performing out of your state, then you only need to check the state for your band's potential name. The problem comes when you want to leave yourself open for bigger and better things, like traveling nationally or internationally. At this point you need to make sure you do some pretty in depth research to ensure that you are the only one who will have this name. Obviously, the more creative the name that you select, the more likely that you will be able to keep it, but even if you think no one would ever think of the same name as you, check it out. It's always better to be safe than sorry.

Essentially there are only two concepts and terms that you will have to be familiar with in regards to naming your band. These two are “priority” and “territory.” Priority is basically who calls their band or company or whatever that name and got the rights to it first. The second term, territory, has to do with where you will use the name. Again, if you plan on working only in your state, that would be your territory. These two terms will also help you protect the name once you have claimed rights to it.

Gaining rights to your name is important and can actually protect it by preventing others from using it. However, this is where territory plays into things, it will only be protected in the area you do business in. This means that if you start your band in Boston, but only play in Boston and never leave you have no control over what someone names their band in Detroit. So, let's assume that they name their band the same as your band. Then they will not be allowed to play or do business in Boston, unless they play under and different name. They are essentially banned from playing in your area. But it also goes the other way around, you aren't allowed to go play in Detroit while that band is still around. And in all reality, you couldn't play anywhere in Michigan, and they couldn't play in Massachusetts. This example makes it easy to see that having the rights to the name you want is important, especially if you plan to go national or international. So research your name well, because once you get started you won't want to have to either change your name, or be banned from playing in certain areas because you didn't do your homework early.

Another facet of this territory debate would be if you started small time and then wanted later to go national. That way would work very similar to starting over. If you have your band in Boston and three years later you want to go national, but during that three year period someone uses the same name in Detroit, you are banned from performing in Detroit since they had territory and priority rights in Michigan before you. With the advances of internet use, the conversation becomes even more complex. With anyone allowed to publish pretty much anything online and instantly have it be global, it can be hard to determine who came up with the name first. And it turns many small-time bands into global bands, because if they sell their music online, whether the CD or in any other form, they are selling globally and their territory goes everywhere.

After reading all of this, it should be obvious to you that you will want to put in ample research before you start throwing money into promotional items and CD covers for your band. If you find someone that already claimed the name that you want, it will be up to you if you can be content being confined to outside of their territory, or if you simply want to rename the band. Generally it is just easier to change the name and avoid all the potential problems. When researching your name, a great starting point is any of the performing rights societies. Some of the big ones would be the SECAS, BMI and ASCAP. It is basically these companies jobs, among other things, to keep rosters of names that could conflict with yours. The internet has also become an excellent researching tool, since so much of music industry has been blended with the world of internet. There are also several places that you can look into the review any state or federal trademarks for certain names.

Once you are sure that you are the only one in your particular territory that has your name, you need to do all you can to protect it. Priority, as mentioned earlier, is incredibly important when another company or band with the same name pops up in your territory. To keep someone from stealing your name you need to keep careful records of all of your performances and any other uses of the names in public. This would include newspapers, concert tickets, records sold and anything else with the name of your band on it. This will keep you protected as time goes on and will give you plenty of proof of when you had your name in place. On top of this basic “insurance” that you can get to protect your name, there are also some legal actions you can take to protect it further if you would like.

Many people when they start a band think that they want to copyright the name. Unfortunately a copyright is reserved for a written work, such as a song, essay or book. Since your name would be considered as a brand, you can't copyright it. You can however trademark it. Generally a trademark is through off to protect a product of some kind, but trademarks include a category known as service marks. This helps protect people who are offering a service, rather than a product, and that is just what you and your band are doing.

If you and your band are planning on staying in a single state, you would only have to worry about getting a state trademark. These are relatively easy to get and will protect your name from anyone else in the state using it. That said, music is very global and it now offers the possibility of selling online anywhere in the world so you may want to consider a federal trademark. The one problem with this option is the federal trademark will only protect your name in the country that you applied in. For a full world-wide territory, you would actually have to apply for a federal trademark in ever country you want to be doing business in.

If you keep your eyes open and look around a little bit you will start to see many product names and band names for that matter with a “(R)” symbol next to them. This is the trademark symbol. This symbol can only be used if the product or name is federally registered and protects the name. This is unlike both the copyright symbol and the “TM” symbol. The copyright symbol can be used even if the work isn't registered. And the “TM” symbol that you will see on occasion isn't legally defined at all. Basically it is a symbol used to claim some kind of ownership, but isn't a registered trademark.

When it is all said and done, do your homework. Check around for a while and put the work in now to make sure that the name you are going to try and claim is only yours. Then you can start to protect the name from other people using or stealing it. Once you finish that then and only then should you start putting money into the promotion and recording anything with your band's name on it.