Meat Loaf in trademark suit

[pam]

(the only issue I have with this is I believe his real name is Marvin Lee, not Michael)

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Veteran rocker Meat Loaf has sued songwriter
Jim Steinman and manager David Sonenberg over trademark rights to "Bat Out of Hell," asking for more than $50 million.

Meat Loaf, whose real name is Michael Aday, claims that Steinman wrongfully registered the phrase as his trademark in 1995. Steinman wrote the title song and other compositions on Meat Loaf's 1977 "Bat Out of Hell" and 1993 "Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell" albums, which have cumulatively sold more than 50 million copies worldwide, according to the complaint. Meat Loaf claims he contributed lyrics to the song, which he recorded and performed.

Meat Loaf has used the phrase "bat out of hell" extensively for the past 29 years in connection with his recordings, videos, tours and merchandise, the complaint alleges. He claims that Steinman has not used the mark, but nonetheless registered it in 1995 as owned by Steinman's Bat Out of Hell Inc. with the U.S. Trademark Office. Trademark rights are based on actual use of a mark in connection with goods or services to identify their source, with federal registration providing additional legal protections.

The complaint, filed May 28 in federal District Court in Los Angeles, alleges that "out of nowhere," Steinman applied for a federal trademark registration but never objected to Meat Loaf using the phrase until a recent falling out.

According to the Meat Loaf camp, they offered Steinman a position to produce and write on the upcoming album "Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose," which will be released in October. Says executive producer Winston Simone, "Along with Jim's lawyer, we had negotiated by far the best producer agreement that we had ever seen. Unfortunately, Jim decided not to sign the agreement or accept the very substantial advance."

Since then, Steinman and his representatives have approached Meat Loaf's labels, Universal and Virgin, falsely asserting trademark ownership and threatening litigation, Meat Loaf's representatives say. Steinman and Sonenberg used the trademark rights "as the basis of a campaign to undermine and interfere with" Meat Loaf's concert, album, tour and contracts with others, the complaint alleges.

The suit asks the court to declare who owns trademark rights, seeks damages in excess of $50 million for interfering with Meat Loaf's contractual relationships with his labels and for an injunction stopping further use of the mark by Steinman.

"Meat Loaf will not be bullied by anyone. He will continue to use the title 'Bat Out of Hell' in any way he wants," says his attorney Louis "Skip" Miller in Los Angeles. Steinman could not be reached for comment. Sonenberg declined to comment.

Reuters/Billboard

 

[markc53]

This shows how ridiculous it is to allow trademarks on words or phrases in common use. The phrase "bat out of hell" was used long before Meat Loaf or anybody else applied for a trademark.

Trademark offices in any country should not give rights to common words or phrases.

Wait I've just had an idea. I will trademark "Hi", "Good morning", "Bye", etc and charge everybody who wants to use them 10c every time!!

 

[DNQuest.com]

First, his real name is Michael Aday, he happens to be an aquaintance of mine. And he is a great guy too. If you ever have a chance to see him in concert, do yourself a favor and go...

I will see if I can find out more info on this, but this is my initial take....

A broken partnership occured and one partner is being vindictive against another. The other partner is fighting back. Since there was never an issue with Meat using the term for over 10 years, dilution could come into play here (it's not like Steinman didn;t know it was being used for the past decade). But it comes down do Steinman is looking for a payout on something he has already been paid for (and continues to get royalties) is trying to disrupt Meat's living.

This will be interesting. As soon as I find out more, I post it here.

 

[pam]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meat_Loaf and from his own website, "Meat Loaf was born Marvin Lee Aday (Now Michael Lee Aday) on September 27th - sometime between 1947 and 1951 in Dallas, Texas."

I saw him in concert when Bat Out Of Hell came out, and I still have my vinyl copy (just a few scratches).

If I'm not mistaken, he and Jim Steinman didn't speak for years.

 

[DNQuest.com]

I did not know that, but his personal email goes by Michael... but prefers to be called Meat lol

Here is an interesting twist though... Steinman has about 8 songs off his new CD coming out. Here is his link to promote his new album...

http://newmedia.10thst.com/ml/ecard/monster/

 

[DeluxeNames.com]

The question I have here as why doesn't Marvin/Michael/Meat/whoever go after:
http://www.meatloaf.com/

The parking page there has paid links to "Listen to Meatloaf" which would indicate the owner is profiting off of "Meat's" name.

DNQuest, can you clue your buddy "Meat" in on this?

I'm glad to see he got his voice back. Was a little worried there for a while.

 

[WhoDatDog]

What most people don't understand is the fact that having people interested in your music is the first thing you need in order to profit from it. Meatloaf is probably happy that people are able to listen to his songs from links at Meatloaf.com. I don't download music, (though I bought an iPod a while back...need to use the damn thing), but I will bet that the cumulative effect of illegal downloads has added net dollars to artists as a whole.

The whole point is to get people to listen to the music....they can pay at the concerts and elsewhere. If someone plays music at a neighborhood party where people are paying a few bucks to drink, should they send royalties to Meatloaf or anyone else.....NO....and I don't care if that is technically and legally correct or not. No matter what anyone says there is a big difference between downloading music for free and crimes like shoplifting.

 

[Ubiquitous]

Maybe the person who invented meatloaf (the food) should sue Michael Lee Aday.

I agree the whole trademark thing has gotten way out of hand. Common dictionary words and phrases shouldn't be allowed to be trademarked IMO. Sure, if you come up with your own slogan, etc. then it would be ok, but this is absolutely ridiculous. When a person does that kind of thing I pretty much loose all respect for them instantly.

 

[DeluxeNames.com]

WhoDatDog, do you own MeatLoaf.com?

I live in Boston and a when the Red Sox finally won the World Series, police had to go up and down the streets confiscating shirts with their popular slogan: "Cowboy Up" as someone had a trademark to it.

That kind of nsanity makes me so mad. I agree with you, WhoDatDog, that MeatLoaf doesn't have any right to, "MeatLoaf.com", my previous post was in jest.

However, the owner of MeatLoaf.com needs to be careful of links to the artist, no matter how much you or I disagree, because the current legal climate does not approve and he would probably loose it at WIPO for "Profiting off of the trademark of the Artist." What the owner might want to do is creat a fan site for MeatLoaf with a disclaimer that it's not associated with the Artist. The thing I wonder is, what are some of the ways these domainers running fan sites can make money off of them without being accused of profiting off the trademark?

 

[WhoDatDog]

I don't own Meatloaf.com and I am all for trademark rights and enforcing them, but sometimes people should be allowed to benefit from certain things, and I believe that owning Meatloaf.com should allow you to put anything there that you want to...within reason/the law.

I believe that technical trademark infractions like this actually help the artists career in the long run. The Internet will be the Wild West for decades to come and there are going to be many gray areas. If you look at most of the UDRP cases you will see that a vast majority of the decisions are common sense based. Meatloaf the singer could never win the name in a dispute, he could only file a civil case that would provide monetary damages and also keep the registrant of Meatloaf.com from putting up links, but he would likely hurt himself in the long-run by having less people access his music.

I always liked Meatloaf and agree that the actions of his former writer are vindictive and in bad taste....to change the subject.

 

[March2005]

It could be argued that Hell does not exist yet, or that there are no bats in Hell, and if there were bats in Hell, they may not even be allowed to leave.

:target: :devil_smile:

 

[pam]

NEW YORK, July 31 Reuters - Veteran rocker Meat Loaf has resolved a dispute with songwriter Jim Steinman over trademark rights to "Bat Out of Hell," dropping a multimillion-dollar lawsuit over the title of the best-selling 1977 album.

"The two came to an amicable agreement that ensured that Jim Steinman's music would be a continuing part of the 'Bat out of Hell' legacy," Virgin Records said in a statement on Monday at an event to promote "Bat out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose," set for release on October 31.

Meat Loaf, whose real name is Marvin Lee Aday, had filed a suit earlier this year claiming that Steinman wrongfully registered the phrase as his trademark in 1995.

Steinman wrote the title track and several others on the original album and the 1993 follow-up "Bat out of Hell II: Back into Hell."

The two have sold a combined total of more than 45 million copies and spawned such rock classics as "You took the words right out of my mouth" and "I'd do anything for love (but I won't do that)."

Unveiling the third album in the trilogy to the media in New York, Meat Loaf said Steinman had written seven songs on the new record.

"If it was not for Jim Steinman and his brilliance and his ability to turn a phrase and his concepts, we wouldn't be here tonight," Meat Loaf said, adding that he was sorry Steinman could not attend the event.

The event took place at a nightclub in Manhattan in a converted church lit with candles for the occasion.

Among the Steinman tracks on the album, which was produced by Desmond Child, known for his work with the likes of Bon Jovi and Aerosmith, is the ballad "It's all coming back to me now," which was a big hit for Celine Dion although it was originally written for the first "Bat out of Hell."

 

[DeluxeNames.com]

Thanks for that updat Pam