Business News Legal

One Direction won’t change name

By | Published on Thursday 19 April 2012

One Direction

One Direction – the UK band off of ‘X-Factor’ – won’t be changing their name any time soon. That’s what they say, anyway. It might not be quite so easy, since One Direction – the US band who no one had heard of until last week but who had the name first – are still pursuing legal action against the boyband’s record label, Syco.

As previously reported, One Direction USA say they formed in 2009, before Simon Cowell first put together his One Direction group on the UK version of ‘X-Factor’ in 2010. Certainly they started selling their album ‘The Light’ on iTunes in February 2011 which, while after the UK group had been created, preceded the release of their debut album ‘Up All Night’.

The American band say they were also first to file an application for ownership of the name with the US trademark authorities, and that Syco knew this, because the label was told so by the US Trademark Office when it tried to register the mark for itself (the matter is currently with the trademark appeals panel). As their name lawsuit became global news last week, the American band insisted they wouldn’t be intimidated by the mighty Syco machine. Though, of course, they didn’t specifically rule out being bought off.

Anyway, 1DUK’s Zayn Malik told Australia’s Herald Sun newspaper this week: “We don’t have any idea [what’s going to happen] but we’re not changing our name”.

He’s probably right, but that situation won’t be likely to arise without handing over a stack of cash to their lawyers and the US band first. Everyone’s a winner.



READ MORE ABOUT: | |