Outkast have sued Ovrkast, because the rapper/producer’s performer name is just too damn similar to that used by the hip hop duo. And Outkast have been using their name a whole lot longer, even if they’re not actively working on any new projects together at the moment.
The lawsuit has been filed by High Schoolers LLC, a company that manages various trademarks on behalf of Outkast members Antwan Patton and André Benjamin, or Big Boi and André 3000 if you prefer.
The legal filing notes that Patton and Benjamin have been using the Outkast name since 1993, have achieved considerable success under that name, and have registered an assortment of trademarks in relation to their brand.
Ovrkast, real name Silas Wilson, has been releasing music since 2017 and came to wider attention through his collaborations with Earl Sweatshirt in 2019, though High Schoolers only seemingly raised formal objections about his use of the name Ovrkast in June last year.
That said, Wilson kind of helped Outkast with their argument that Ovrkast is confusingly similar to their brand by basically admitting as much in an interview with Rolling Stone in July last year.
In that interview he complained that some people have wrongly accused him of “thinking he’s Outkast”. He then added, “they read Ovrkast [as] Outkast. They’re like, ‘oh my God, I thought they said Outkast’. And it’s like, ‘it don’t, so...’”
Translating that little moan into legalese, High Schoolers writes in its lawsuit that “defendant’s use of the Ovrkast mark is likely to cause confusion, to cause mistake or to deceive the public into the false belief that the services offered by defendant come from or are otherwise sponsored by, connected with, or affiliated with Outkast, which they are not”.
The lawsuit reveals that - after Outkast, via High Schoolers, sent Wilson a cease and desist letter last year - negotiations began about him slightly amending his performer name, adding an ‘e’ and switching the ‘a’ to an ‘x’. The Outkast company said they could live with Wilson releasing music as Overkxst. Which doesn’t seem that much less confusing, but there you go.
Under a settlement agreement, Wilson was meant to rebrand himself to Overkxst by mid-July. But then, just as the deadline for the rebrand approached, Wilson’s people said the rapper no longer wanted to use that name and proposed two alternatives.
But, says the lawsuit, High Schoolers had already rejected one of those alternatives during settlement negotiations, and the other “was a close variation of a name it had previously rejected”.
With Wilson having missed the rebrand deadline and continuing to operate as Ovrkast, Outkast decided to go legal, accusing Wilson of trademark infringement, unfair competition and breach of contract.