No. He can't use the old band's name. The court explained that a band's name is like a brand, and it belongs to the group that is actively performing and maintaining its reputation. When McClary quit and was gone for decades, he gave up his share of the brand. The rights to the name stayed with the members who stuck around and kept 'The Commodores' going. Furthermore, the contracts everyone signed clearly said that members who leave give up their right to use the name.

No, McClary cannot use the name 'The Commodores' for his own band because he gave up his rights to the name when he left the original band. The rights to the name stayed with the original band members who kept performing together, which is now CEC. The court order stopping McClary from using the name was correct, McClary's arguments about CEC's official trademark registration do not matter here, and McClary did not prove any defenses. So the court's decision in favor of CEC is affirmed.

No. A member who leaves a musical group does not retain common-law trademark rights to the group's name; those rights remain with the members who continuously operate and control the band. The court's reasoning is twofold. First, based on common-law trademark principles, ownership of a group's mark is tied to control over the quality of the services provided under that mark. When McClary left the band for several decades, he relinquished any control over the group's music, performances, and business decisions. The rights remained with the members, like King and Orange, who continued to perform as 'The Commodores' and maintained the quality and goodwill associated with the name. The court found persuasive the reasoning in similar cases, such as the Ninth Circuit's decision in *Robi v. Reed* concerning 'The Platters.' Second, the various contractual agreements signed by the original members, including the General Partnership Agreement and Motown recording contracts, unambiguously established that the rights to the name were owned jointly by the group and that any member who left would forfeit the right to use the name individually.

No. When McClary left the band, he left behind his common-law rights to the marks, which remained with the group members who continued to use and exert control over the group, namely CEC. This is because the common-law trademark rights were initially jointly owned by the group and could not be divided for simultaneous use by multiple independent parties. The various contractual agreements executed by the parties also confirm that the group members contemplated that the marks were to be jointly but not severally owned, and that a member leaving the group would cease using the group's name as an identifier. The scope of the injunction was not impermissibly broad, McClary's arguments about the validity of the federal registration of the marks are irrelevant to this determination, and McClary did not establish any affirmative defenses. Therefore, the district court's grant of judgment as a matter of law for CEC is affirmed.

Commodores Entertainment Corp. v. McClary

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