Former Journey singer Steve Perry recently pulled out his petition to cancel trademark registrations for 20 of the band’s songs held by guitarist Neal Schon and keyboard player Jonathan Cain. The songs include some of Journey’s most popular singles, such as “Any Way You Want It”, “Open Arms” and “Separate Ways”.
Steve Perry withdraws the petition
Schon and Cain, through their company Freedom JN LLC, own the trademark registrations to many of Journey’s biggest hits, covering the use of the names on T-shirts, hoodies and other forms of apparel, making it easier for the band to sue someone selling those items. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued the registrations between February 2022 and May 2022.
In his petition, Perry claimed the trio had an agreement that required unanimous consent for any business decision related to the trademarks and that he had not authorized said consent. He also accused Schon and Cain of “fraud on the trademark office” by what he claims is inaccurate information about the trademark.
It has been noted that Schon gave a response to Perry’s lawsuit labeling it to be “a bunch of total crap”, explaining that the conflict was related to the dispute over control of the Journey name that led to the 2020 dismissal of longtime bassist Ross Valory and drummer Steve Smith.
Schon, who has been embroiled in a public war of words with Cain over the latter’s performance of Journey’s 1981 hit song “Don’t Stop Believin'” at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property in November, revealed the end of Perry’s legal challenge to the trademarks in a tweet Friday night (January 6).
He included a copy of Perry’s January 4 withdrawal of petition for cancelation, and he included the following message: “So much for JC trying to throw me under the bus as he claimed I was blatantly trying to rip off SP while collecting the checks for the very diligent work my wife and I did to protect our Merch. Time for coffee”.
When one of Neal’s Twitter followers asked him if Steve was dropping his lawsuit, Schon replied: “Yes he did. Now we can talk as we were.”
No more lawsuit with Steve.Time to talk ✌🏽 pic.twitter.com/JuLaMZxY0b
— NEAL SCHON MUSIC (@NealSchonMusic) January 7, 2023
