May 2005
Westlife Cannot Have Exclusivity of their Band Name
A German tobacco company has won a five year long legal battle which challenged the trade marked name of the famous Irish pop band, "Westlife". The tobacco company claimed that the band's name was too similar to its trade mark "West".
The judges in the European court in Luxembourg ruled that the similarity was enough to confuse the "average German consumer", in that, the relevant public may link the goods and services marketed under either name to originate from the same company or undertaking. In one way, the goods and services are identical or similar because both carry out merchandising on items such as t-shirts. However, the pop band claimed firstly, that they would never want to be associated with cigarettes as they have a strong following of kids and secondly, they claimed that they find it hard to see how one could not differentiate between a cigarette company and a pop band. The judge disagreed.
BRIFFA Comment:
No manufacturer's branding strategy, whether it be cigarettes, clothing, alcohol, an IT company, motor vehicles, insurance or a pop band, is safe from a lookalike invasion, whether that be intentional or not. The power of a well-designed identity system, which is capable of conveying multiple messages and associations, is difficult to over-estimate. The boys have had a tough time with securing rights in their name. They started out as IOU in February 1998 before becoming Westside in October but were forced to change their name (to Westlife) after a challenge from an LA band. The band catapulted to fame. The band is not prevented from using their name in the UK or Ireland but they are likely to suffer a huge loss in revenue from being unable to use the name in Germany. Who knows, they may even rebrand themselves entirely…if feeling in need of some grander exposure soon, in what is customarily known to be itself a volatile industry.