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Universal orders Motown tribute acts to stop using the label’s name

By | Published on Thursday 13 November 2014

Universal Music

At least two Motown tribute acts who perform songs that originated with the legendary label and which use the record company’s name in their monikers have been threatened with legal action by Universal Music, of which Motown is now an imprint.

According to The Stage, The Magic Of Motown and Motown Magic have both been told that they must change their names, hand over web domains and cover the mega-major’s legal costs, otherwise they will face legal action. Universal’s lawyers say that the bands are infringing trademarks by using the ‘Motown’ word while operating “in the same field as our client and hence there is a commercial conflict”.

Given that a number of British tribute acts have used the ‘Motown’ word for years, it’s thought that legal letters have gone out now because ‘Motown The Musical’ – created by Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr and featuring songs made famous by his now Universal-owned label (and with official show merch sold by Universal’s Bravado) – will arrive in London next year.

Ashley Blake of Motown Magic told The Stage: “They have never complained before, but then a musical about Motown is announced and suddenly they are clamping down”. He also claimed that, under the major’s terms, once they’d changed their name the band would be allowed for include the line “formerly known as Motown Magic” on marketing materials, but only for eight weeks.

He went on: “We are six musicians, our website clearly states we play Motown and soul music, we do not in any way try to visually copy the Motown acts, we do not use the Motown logo, and the point of our band name is just to let the public know we play Motown music – we are not trying to deceive the public in any way”.

“It is just a shame that a recording label with such humble beginnings seems hell-bent on making it an elitist entity whereby to hear its music live you will have to wait until next year for the musical, probably costing anything from £40 a seat upwards, or sit at home listening to the music on your stereo”.

Universal’s lawyers have not yet responded to The Stage’s request for comment, so we only know the tribute acts’ side of this story. Presumably if it went to court defence lawyers could argue that the word ‘Motown’ has meanings beyond the business – it originating as a nickname for the label’s home town of Detroit and becoming associated with a genre of music as well as one record company’s roster. But possibly the major’s legal advisors don’t expect the matter to ever get that far.

Whatever the legal arguments, if Blake’s claims are correct, this whole matter will only further the major music companies’ reputation as greedy abusers of their IP rights, which only makes it harder for the content industries at large to win the wider debate about why copyright etc is actually a rather good idea. Still, it helps keep the lawyers in work.



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