One Direction Settles Legal Dispute Over Band Name

A lawsuit pitting USA vs. UK over one of the hottest monikers in the music business is over.

One Direction, the mega-selling UK act that was put together by Simon Cowell on The X Factor, has settled a legal war over its band name.


Cowell's record label, Syco Entertainment as well as Sony Music and members of the band were sued in April after coming to America as part of a new "British Invasion." The problem was that an American boy group also known as One Direction already existed, which prompted a dispute both at the U.S. Trademark Office and in California federal court over who would be the one to keep the name.

The American act claimed $1 million in damages in a trademark infringement lawsuit and said that evidence of the confusion was clear. When the UK act went on NBC's Today, for instance, producers accidentally accompanied their visit with music from the U.S. band.

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On Wednesday, all claims and counterclaims between the parties were dismissed with prejudice with both sides agreeing to bear their own legal costs. It appears that the UK act will be keeping its name. According to a document filed on Tuesday at the Trademark Office, the U.S. act has expressly abandoned its claim to the mark, "One Direction."

In the five months since the lawsuit was first filed, the dispute did nothing to slow One Direction's burgeoning success. Despite the legal cloud hanging over the band's name, the UK act has made some big endorsement deals, recently signing a lucrative one with Pepsi, for instance.

UK's One Direction -- made up of Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Zayn Malik and Niall Horan -- played defense by going on the offensive against the US formation fronted by Sean O'Leary. In June, counterclaims were filed that alleged the U.S. act had "devised and perpetrated a scheme to exploit the goodwill" of the U.K.'s One Direction and that the Brits were the real ones under the threat of having consumers steered wrong.

In past cases where two bands shared a name across an ocean, measures have been taken like adding a suffix to denote who is who. Think The Charlatans UK, The English Beat or Wham UK.
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In this latest instance, the parties had evidence to fuss over like which band was the first to put up a Facebook page, which band was first to put up a YouTube music video, who was the first on iTunes and which band was getting nasty comments from confused fans.

Ultimately, the two sides found the coordinates to meet eye-to-eye on an agreement that not only resolves the lawsuit, but also a quarrel at the Trademark Trial & Appeal Board.

Full terms of that settlement haven't been disclosed yet. Neither party has responded yet to a request for comment.

One Direction Home: What the DNC Is All About

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — This convention, for the moment anyway, doesn't march so much as it flows. Last week, with the exception of Clint Eastwood's one-man performance of Plan 9 From Outer Space, the Republicans ran a wonderfully efficient show. There was a speech, then a video about Willard Romney, then a musical interlude, then another speech. One-two-three-four, every night for three nights, and every night with a distinct theme to which the speakers rigidly kept. The problem was that all that precision got in the way of the message. It let some of the party's putative superstars — Chris Christie, Marco Rubio — pretty much bury the lead, which was that everybody was there to nominate Willard Romney for president. They just wound it all up on Tuesday and let it run down by Thursday night. It was a convention without a turning radius. It cornered like a battleship. Eastwood happened because all of that precision put the whole thing on automatic pilot.

Here, on the first night, the music was largely interstitial, there were very few videos, and one speaker followed hard upon the next, all of them with their eyes firmly on the prize, namely that the renomination and re-election of Barack Obama is the one and only duty of everybody who came here. Some of the speakers were good. Governor Deval Patrick went all preachery and sounded very much like who he is, the son of a man who once played music in Sun Ra's Arkestra. And Michelle Obama put one so deep that I don't think it's ever going to be playable, not even Thursday night, when her husband speaks. (The Coming Backlash Previewed: "The Media's In The Tank Again!") Some of the speeches were bad; Maryland governor Martin O'Malley is truly having a terrible week. (Your now customary Wire reference: "Omar don't dance, and Omar don't listen to that speech, either.") But there was a steady course to the evening, and it was all in one direction: The president is worth re-electing because the president has done some things that no Republican would have done.

The most clearly defined example of this was health care, which the Democrats seem determined to reclaim as a genuine achievement, which is something they all resolutely refused to do to at their peril in 2010. The law has been in place long enough now for there to be some authentic human consequences to it, and the Democrats told those stories last night. (This, of course, also wrongfoots Romney, who can't take credit for similar stories in Massachusetts because his party is out of its mind on this issue.) There never has been any reason not to do this, since the Republicans were going to pin it on every Democrat anyway. But now there are Zoe and her mom to bring out on the podium, and Zoe's a pretty good argument.

Of course, there's less of a hard pull here. Nobody has to feel obligated to "introduce" Barack Obama to the nation. There's no great hurry to "humanize" the man. So this convention likely will not have to work quite as hard at establishing a reason that the party should nominate him again as the Republicans had to work to establish a reason why they should nominate Romney at all. And it should put to rest two of the great phony issues of the campaign: 1) that the Democrats had an "enthusiasm gap" in relation to the Republicans, and b) that the Clintons are secretly plotting to undermine the president. As to the first, the "gap" existed solely with that substantial portion of Republicans who are so unhinged at the Kenyan Muslim Usurper that they'd vote for Charlie Manson if he were on the ballot. That's not "enthusiasm." That's fanaticism, and not a little bit of hatred. Besides, I heard the same thing in 2004 from people — like, well, me — who were not enthusiastic about George W. Bush's conduct in office. The Republicans ginned up just enough enthusiasm that fall to make me crazy for another four years. As to the latter, well, I think Bill Clinton's going to burn this place down tomorrow, and he's going to do it on behalf of Barack Obama, who is the only reason all of these people are here. The tide got a little stronger on Tuesday night, and the pull is all in one direction..

One Direction Signs Deal With Pepsi

It’s a secret – but not a well kept one. One Direction has reportedly signed a deal with Pepsi. According to The Sun - the boys recently filmed a video alongside American football’s biggest names in New Orleans.

A source said, “This is a huge deal for them in monetary terms — but even bigger for status as the coverage they’ll get from it is massive. They’re already stars across America, but this could catapult them to superstardom. The boys were under strict instructions to stay quiet on this one and refrain from tweeting about their whereabouts.”

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees is also in the ad. An insider spilled the beans to the British paper.

“They flew to Tampa before boarding a private jet laid on by Pepsi to New Orleans where they met Drew Brees, who taught them the ropes on American football. Other football stars are in the ad too.”

Hollywoodlife.com reports that Drew replied to a fan question on Twitter on Sept. 4.

He wrote: “Wait til you see it!!! I was part of the band!”

That Tweet has since been mysteriously deleted.

In the meantime One Direction are getting ready for their appearance at the VMAs and the November release of Take Me Home.

Niall Horan explained the album and title to Ryan Seacrest.

He said, “We thought about it for a while. Because we all would do a lot of traveling around the world and we get to see a lot of cool places, but the main thing is there’s no place like home. It’s always kind of nice to go home…We’re obviously nervous. The second album you never know what you’re going to get from it. But we’re really excited about it. It’s really fun, very heavy on guitars and drums, so we’re super excited about it.”

Rihanna Nearly Causes A Riot At Paris Train Station

Celebrities, be careful what you tweet.

Rihanna nearly caused a riot Saturday (Sept. 1), after tweeting a picture at London's St Pancras station with her location and arrival time in Paris, at Gare du Nord train station, clearly displayed. Some of her 25 million Twitter followers saw the status update and decided to show up to greet her upon arrival.

This was not exactly an ideal situation for Rihanna or the train station.

"I just had to fight my way out of a damn train station!!!" she wrote on her Twitter account. "FYI, if you push me, you will get pushed back! Papz and crazies included!!!!"

"It was absolute chaos, and all Rihanna's fault," said a security chief at the Gare du Nord. "What Rihanna did was utterly irresponsible. There was genuine fear among the people at the station."

Rihanna And Chris Parallels In ‘We Found Love’ Should Secure VMAs Video Of The Year

Rihanna's three-times-VMAs-nominated "We Found Love" video is arguably pop music's best illustration of the "art imitates life" cliché. In the clip that is up for Video of the Year, Best Female Video and Best Pop Video, the song tells the story of a passionate young couple who love and fight hard until the demise of their relationship. Sound familiar?

When the video was released in October 2011, the parallels to Rihanna's real life drama with ex-boyfriend Chris Brown were undeniable. Brown look-alike Dudley O-Shaughnessy died his hair blonde for the gig, and he and Riri even reenacted a portion of police report account of her 2009 car fight with Brown.

Even with all of its sensationalism, "We Found Love" managed to humanize the former power couple who appeared to be exploiting their own pains for the sake of fame. But after "We Found Love" exhausted its promotional run, Rihanna and Brown's story continued to develop.

Rihanna and Brown shocked their audiences on February 20, Rihanna's 24th birthday, when they appeared on remixes to their respective songs, "Birthday Cake" and "Turn Up The Music." But the teaming was tame in concept when compared to the lyrical content of "Birthday Cake," an explicit song about ex-lovers reminiscing about their carnal pleasures. The-Dream, who produced the song, revealed that it was actually Rihanna's idea to enlist Brown for the collaboration.

By June, Rihanna and Brown's relationship took another turn when the entourages of Brown and Drake, who has also been romantically linked to Rihanna, sparked a brawl in the VIP section of New York's W.i.P. nightclub. Brown and Drake's feud reportedly stems from their involvement with the "Where Have You Been" singer.




Two months later, Rihanna revealed her true feelings for Brown during an interview with Oprah Winfrey that aired in August on "Oprah's Next Chapter." Rihanna cried as she recounted losing her best friend and described her attempt to balance her conflicting emotions.

"It was a weird confusing space to be in because to be as angry and as angry and as hurt and betrayed, I just felt like [Chris] made that mistake because he needed help," she said. "I was more concerned about him."

Rihanna and Brown may have found love in a hopeless place, but her music has transcended wishful thinking. Her confident, bold and brash musical choices have afforded her one of pop music's most enviable trajectories for super stardom. It's going to be tough for Katy Perry, Gotye, M.I.A. or Rihanna's song with Drake, to beat out "We Found Love" for the VMAs Video of the Year title.

Rihanna Drops ‘Cockiness’ Remix, Recruits A$AP Rocky For 2012 VMA Performance

Rihanna’s 2012 MTV Video Music Awards performance just got a little more gangsta! On Tuesday (September 4) it was announced that the Bajan bombshell will be opening the big show Thursday at 8 p.m. ET/PT live from Staples Center in Los Angeles, but that’s not all. The Talk That Talk singer will also be joined by A$AP Rocky.

Lil Wayne Added To 2012 VMA Performance Lineup

Rih Rih and Rocky will be treating fans to the first-ever live performance of their new single “Cockiness (I Love It)” remix. The original appears on Rihanna’s Talk That Talk LP, but the remix can be streamed right now on the pop star’s MTV artist page, then immediately following her VMA performance she will release the track exclusively on iTunes. Rihanna will also perform her #1 single “We Found Love” as well.

“Pretty motherf---er with the Mossberg/ Jiggy motherf---er at my concert,” Rocky spits to start the Bangladesh-produced track before he cranks up his verse with lyrics like, “Tell Rih Rih, I go re-re-tarded/ On the remix of the re-recording.”

This time last year, Rocky was prepping for the Halloween drop of his debut mixtape LiveLoveA$AP, but since its release he has become the cream of rap’s new crop. Now fans are eagerly anticipating the arrival of his solo debut album LongLiveA$AP, which is led by the thumping single “Goldie,” produced by G.O.O.D. Music beat smith Hit-Boy.

Rocky isn’t the only rap draw added to the VMA lineup today. Young Money boss Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj and 2 Chainz are all scheduled to hit the Video Music Award stage.

You’re not going to want to miss this.

The 2012 MTV Video Music Awards are set to go live from Staples Center in Los Angeles on Thursday at 8 p.m. ET/PT. But before it all goes down, don't miss our "Jersey Shore" special "Gym, Tan, Look Back" at 6 p.m. and our pre-show with Demi Lovato at 7 p.m.! And head over to VMA.MTV.com to vote on Best New Artist and Most Share-Worthy Video!