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The case of Deep Purple

By Mark Halloran
From "Musician's Business & Legal Guide"

An example of the issues involved when a group disbands but its product still sells involved the group "Deep Purple", which had not been performing as a band for many years. Its records, however, still sold. One of the original members of that band formed a new group. None of the other members of that new group had been members of the original "Deep Purple". This new group began to perform under the name "Deep Purple".

The corporation, owned by the original members of "Deep Purple" and their management, still owned the rights to the name "Deep Purple". They sued the new "Deep Purple" to stop them from performing under the name and were awarded damages of $ 672,000; compensatory damages (actual damages suffered by the corporation) were $168,000 and $504,000 was for punitive damages. Since then, the authorized "Deep Purple" has reformed, and resumed performing and recording.