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Lady A fight back against Lady A’s attempt to have trademark battle moved to Washington court
By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 2 December 2020
Lady A(ntebellum) have asked a Nashville court to block attempts by Lady A(nita White) to have a trademark case over their shared name moved to Washington. The band argue that White has failed to show any good reasons to move the case to her home state.
In a court filing this week, the band criticise White for first filing a “coercive” countersuit against them, and then arguing for their initial lawsuit against her to be moved to Washington. They argue that the case should stay in Tennessee, “where the lion’s share of [the band’s] commercialisation of the Lady A mark originates”.
“Ms White fails to make a sufficient showing to justify transfer”, they say. “The majority of the parties are in Tennessee, and some of Ms White’s potential witnesses reside in Mississippi – far closer than Washington”.
Lady Antebellum announced in June that they were changing their name, due to the word antebellum’s associations with the slave trade. The new name they chose was Lady A, a nickname they said that many fans already used. However, they were quickly criticised by blues singer Anita White, who has been performing under that name for more than 20 years.
Initial discussions attempting to resolve the issue appeared positive, with an agreement struck that would allow both parties to continue to use the name and see the band offer a certain amount of career support to White.
However, Lady A the singer wasn’t happy with the written agreement that came out of those discussions. She then hired new legal representation which wrote an alternative agreement, allegedly including a $10 million pay off for their client – significantly more than the originally agreed $10,000.
Having received that proposal, Lady A the band went legal in July, arguing that they own the registered trademark in the name and have done so for a decade. Lady A the singer then filed her own lawsuit in September, arguing that she had “accrued common law rights” in the name simply by using it for so long.
The problem for White is that she did not sue first. Under US court rules, where two suits are very similar, the later-filed case is generally transferred to the district where the first was filed. However, in a legal filing last month, White argued that this should not happen in her case because the band’s litigation was “an improper anticipatory” lawsuit filed in order to try to deny the singer “her choice of forum”.
A decision is yet to be made, but the band want the court to either move White’s case to Tennessee or dismiss it outright.
