Anthony Kiedis,
Chad Smith, John Frusciante and Michael 'Flea' Balzary, doing
business as Red Hot Chili Peppers, are suing Showtime Networks and
others. They argue that the creation and marketing of the TV series
"constitutes a false designation of origin, and has caused and
continues to cause a likelihood of confusion, mistake, and
deception as to source, sponsorship, affiliation, and/or connection
in the minds of the public".
The album Californication sold 14 million copies and was listed
among Rolling Stone magazine's Top 500 Albums of All Time.
The group say that the US series, starring David Duchovny, dilutes
the quality of their brand. They are seeking unspecified damages
and a new name for the TV show.
The lawsuit notes that a recurring character in the TV show is
called 'Dani California'. That is also the name of a character who
is the subject of or mentioned in three songs by the Chili Peppers,
including the song Californication. The band also wrote a hit
single called Dani California.
The lawsuit does not mention it, but according to Wikipedia, a
character in one episode narrates the line, "It's the edge of the
world and all of western civilization," a lyric from the song
Californication.
Further, the lawsuit notes that a search on 'Californication' in
Apple's iTunes Music Store retrieves the band's works and the TV
show's compilation albums. The band says that causes confusion.
However, Showtime Networks is expected to argue that the band
did not coin the word, a portmanteau of California and fornication.
It first appeared in print in Time Magazine in 1972, in an article
called The
Great Wild Californicated West. Time reporter Sandra
Burton wrote, "Legislators, scientists and citizens are now openly
concerned about the threat of 'Californication'—the haphazard,
mindless development that has already gobbled up most of Southern
California."
Kim Walker, head of intellectual property at Pinsent Masons, the
law firm behind OUT-LAW.COM, said that the band should have
registered Californication as a trade mark. Instead, the only trade
mark application was filed in April in the US, by Showtime
Networks. The mark has not yet been registered.
"Successful songs, albums and movies can become brands in
themselves. What's really surprising is how few songs and albums
are properly protected," said Walker. "The Chili Peppers could
almost certainly have registered a trade mark for
'Californication', notwithstanding Time's article. They made the
word famous, but it doesn't automatically follow that they can stop
its use in a TV show."
"If they had registered the title as a trade mark covering
entertainment services, I very much doubt we'd have seen a lawsuit.
The TV show would have been called something else," he said. "As it
is, the band faces an uphill struggle."
A quick search on Rolling Stone's Top 10 Greatest Albums of
All Time at the trade mark registries of the US and UK shows
that none of the album titles are protected by the artists or their
record companies.
An individual applied to register Highway 61 Revisited,
the Bob Dylan album that appears at number 4 in Rolling Stone's
list; but that application was abandoned. Rubber Soul,
ranked number 5, is registered as a mark, but not to The
Beatles. And Sgt. Pepper's, the top-ranked album, is
registered as a footwear brand by a company in Spain and as a
pepper spray brand in the US.
David Bowie appears to be more savvy than most of his
counterparts, though: he has registered Ziggy Stardust as a trade
mark for music and entertainment services. The Rise and Fall of
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars is ranked at number
35 in Rolling Stone's list.
