ADMIRAL ENTERTAINMENT - EVENT MANAGEMENT & INDUSTRY NEWS
THE ENTROPY Change Their Name To GOLDEN GATE GRAVES
Updated On: Monday June 4th, 2012 20:47
After commercially using the band name “The Entropy” since high school (1997), Barrie, ON , rock group have been forced to change their name to avoid legal measures. The band recently took a stance, staying out of court by altering their brand, with a new name “Golden Gate Graves”. “We didn’t want to change the name at all at first", comments Grant Boyer the group’s guitarist, “Our new name is a cool brand we've been able to work with and it's given a fresh approach to what it is that we do.”
The band was contacted in the summer (2011) by a 40+ year old Toronto resident who played in a band called “Entropy” back in the early 90’s. After a few releases and not a whole lot of commercial success, this band had allegedly broke-up (now for nearly two decades) and completely off the radar to the newer band “The Entropy”. But recently the Toronto resident trademarked the name “Entropy” (under musical works) to protect what appears to be, simply the re-release of his old bands catalogue for digital and online hardcopy sales.
The Toronto resident had contacted the ‘now accused trademark infringing band with information about his newly registered trademark and began legal matters while immediately shutting down e-assets including their Facebook fan page and Myspace accounts. “It seemed crazy at the time and was damaging to the group, especially losing all their social media fans tied to the bands e-assets”, comments Paul Fairley (the groups manager). The bands management had been in contact with legal counsel and eventually decided to change the name altogether to save what could end up being years in court. After a decade of use, The Entropy have decided to adopt a new name “Golden Gate Graves”.
Is this Toronto resident going to make a comeback? We’ll have to wait and see but without a full band together, actively touring or releasing new material, it’s not likely for any group to have much commercial success. The stinger here is that a trademark protects the use of a name in the case of being able to prove first commercial use of a name with additional proof of having sustained that commercial use, which in this case the Toronto resident could prove by simply claiming to sell only one CD a year.
Having that now behind them, local brothers Josh and Luke Hutchinson, Grant Boyer and Jason Yuricek of “Golden Gate Graves” have a collective vision, a vision that they say, is now coming to life. With five releases under their belt and a new angle to their name, Golden Gate Graves have release their new EP and announced spring/summer 2012 tour dates.
For more info, visit: www.goldengategraves.com
The band was contacted in the summer (2011) by a 40+ year old Toronto resident who played in a band called “Entropy” back in the early 90’s. After a few releases and not a whole lot of commercial success, this band had allegedly broke-up (now for nearly two decades) and completely off the radar to the newer band “The Entropy”. But recently the Toronto resident trademarked the name “Entropy” (under musical works) to protect what appears to be, simply the re-release of his old bands catalogue for digital and online hardcopy sales.
The Toronto resident had contacted the ‘now accused trademark infringing band with information about his newly registered trademark and began legal matters while immediately shutting down e-assets including their Facebook fan page and Myspace accounts. “It seemed crazy at the time and was damaging to the group, especially losing all their social media fans tied to the bands e-assets”, comments Paul Fairley (the groups manager). The bands management had been in contact with legal counsel and eventually decided to change the name altogether to save what could end up being years in court. After a decade of use, The Entropy have decided to adopt a new name “Golden Gate Graves”.
Is this Toronto resident going to make a comeback? We’ll have to wait and see but without a full band together, actively touring or releasing new material, it’s not likely for any group to have much commercial success. The stinger here is that a trademark protects the use of a name in the case of being able to prove first commercial use of a name with additional proof of having sustained that commercial use, which in this case the Toronto resident could prove by simply claiming to sell only one CD a year.
Having that now behind them, local brothers Josh and Luke Hutchinson, Grant Boyer and Jason Yuricek of “Golden Gate Graves” have a collective vision, a vision that they say, is now coming to life. With five releases under their belt and a new angle to their name, Golden Gate Graves have release their new EP and announced spring/summer 2012 tour dates.
For more info, visit: www.goldengategraves.com
