Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Wyrd Sister Lawsuit

From soundgenerator.com:

A Canadian folk trio have launched a suit against members of Radiohead, Pulp's Jarvis Cocker, Warner Brothers Entertainment Canada and Warner Brothers Records for trademark infringement. Winnipeg female act The Wyrd Sisters have launched the suit in response to characters used in the new Harry Potter film, which originally bore the same name as the band. According to press reports J.K. Rowling's 'Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire' originally featured a band of rock 'n'roll wizards, played by Pulp's Jarvis Cocker and Radiohead's Phil Selway and Johnny Greenwood, that went by the same name.

The Wyrd Sisters singer Kim Baryluk explains their reason for filing the lawsuit:

"[Harry Potter] is so much more huge than us in their reach that we'll go out on tour a month after the movie comes out - and we'll go all over to Australia, to New Zealand - and people will wonder who are these strange people stealing the Harry Potter name?"

She adds the band were originally approached in June this year with a view to using the name, with Warner originally offering $5,000, and then $50,000 to share the name. "Do you know what I've spent on the band in the past 10 years?" she adds "In the last 10 years I've spent more than a million dollars. Offering me $50,000 is more than an insult."

Warner Music refused to comment at this stage, although added in a statement that they had no intention of using the band name after the Canadian act declined their offer. Radiohead's manager added the following statement:

"(Johnny and Phil) were asked to be in the film to be The Wyrd Sisters, which is what J.K. Rowling called the band and then there's this (Canadian) band called The Wyrd Sisters, so now they can't be called The Wyrd Sisters."

"The (Canadian) Wyrd Sisters are just trying to sue them for namesake. The whole story is just a couple of people in a band trying to get some money."
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Shouldn't Shakespeare be suing all these people?

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