The US government provisionally rejected Led Zeppelin’s attempt to obtain a new trademark for the band’s mysterious “Led Zeppelin Experience” project. It indicates that the band might be forced to disclose more information about what the project is.
LedZepNews revealed in July that the band had filed last-minute paperwork to keep control of the US trademark for “The Led Zeppelin Experience”, the name of the band’s mysterious project, which could be an exhibition, a hologram or even an archive of live recordings.
On July 14, lawyers representing the Jimmy Page-owned business Superhype Tapes filed a new trademark application in the US seeking to retain ownership of the brand name “The Led Zeppelin Experience”.
The trademark application covered “entertainment services” such as “live performances, road shows, live stage events, theatrical performances, live music concerts and audience participation in such events”. It also covered clothing sold using the brand name.
On December 9, the US government provisionally rejected the band’s trademark application. It claimed that the name of the project is too similar to the band’s existing trademark for its name.
“‘The Led Zeppelin Experience’ is confusingly similar to the registered mark ‘Led Zeppelin’,” the US government wrote.
“Because the marks look and sound similar and create the same commercial impression, the marks are considered similar for likelihood of confusion purposes,” it explained.
US govt. turns down Led Zeppelin
In its provisional refusal, the US government sent the band’s lawyers a screenshot of a dictionary website, showing the definition of the word “experience” as it explained why the band couldn’t create a new trademark by simply adding the word on to an existing trademark.
“‘Experience’ merely describes a feature of applicant’s services, as the term means events
lived through or participated in. See attached evidence from American Heritage Dictionary,” the US government wrote.
The legendary band now has three months to respond to the US government if it wishes to revise its trademark application for “The Led Zeppelin Experience”. The band’s lawyers may share more information about the project in order to explain why they should be able to use the word “experience” in a separate trademark to the band’s name.
Beginning in 2017, the three surviving band members and the estate of John Bonham jointly collaborated on the planning of the project, which appeared to be a planned exhibition featuring a potential hologram component and possibly live recordings as well.
The band filed a US trademark application for the name of the project on November 2, 2017. Weeks later in December 2017, Jason Bonham changed the name of his band from “Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience” to “Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening”.
