Doobie Brothers sue Doobie Decimal System over name.

[ghostsinthemachine]

Last year guitarist Roger McNamee and guitarist/fiddle player Jason Crosby formed a duo, calling themselves Doobie Decibel System. According to reports, the pair has been sued by the Doobie Brothers over use of their Doobie Decibel System name.


The pair of California-based performers (who appeared together in our Songs Of Their Own series) have allegedly infringed the Doobie Brothers’ trademark of the words “Doobie Brothers” and “Doobies” in relation to musical performances. The suit claims the name Doobie Decibel System is "highly phonetically and visually similar to" the band’s name and that the pair emphasizes the word “doobie” in their imagery and posters. The Doobie Brothers are asking the court to impose and an injunction as well as punitive damages for trademark infringement and other unfair use claims.

Doobie Decibel System currently has four shows planned, beginning on August 8 at The Rose in Jackson Hole, Wyoming followed by a performance August 9 at Concerts on the Commons in Teton Village, Wyoming with McNamee’s band Moonalice and Devon Allman. On September 18 they open for Moonalice at Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael, California and on September 24 they open for The Rock Collection at Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, California.

The Doobies should change their name to Douchy Brothers....

[BillZBubb]

1. How in the world could you trademark "doobies" for all musical performances?

If I was on a jury, the suit would get laughed at.

[HFRN]

2. you cant take a slang noun, then ban it from all other uses

imagine the rolling stones claiming that every use of the word 'brown' in a song infringed on the rights of their song 'brown sugar'

d brothers can go f themselves, if they needed money, they could have come up with a new song in the last 35 years

[ghostsinthemachine]

3. Of course Roger McNamee is a venture capitalist

Which goes a long ways to figgering out why the suit even came up.....

[Dr Hobbitstein]

4. So, basically

a now-fledgling rock band found out a rich guy used a word that is in the name of their band and decided to try and get a payday?

Looking at Roger McNamee's wikipedia page, he seems to be a stand-up dude.

[ghostsinthemachine]

8. Not even a fledgling band

The band is the 5th project ongoing for Jason Crosby and the 3rd for Roger, (Moonalice) so they never even play. And to think that they will ever even achieve fame is ridiculous. Rich guy gets sued.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

9. Oh, the fledgling band I was referring to

was The Doobies, not Roger and Jason's band. They may have been big in the 70s and 80s, but they're not really relevant these days. It was a bully move by them to pick on the rich guy.

[olddots]

5. " What A Fool Beleives"

" Taking It To The Streets " old rockers never die they just embarrass us for having encouraged them .

[Romulox]

6. This is nothing new. Anybody ever seen the Doobie Bros episode of Good Times?

They spend the entire episode lecturing Rerun about the evils of concert bootlegging.

He's using one of these to make his high fidelity Doobie-threatening tape recordings :

[onenote]

7. Other possibilities

The Pointer Sisters trademark, for musical performances, the name Pointer Sister or Pointers and another musical act comes along and bills itself the Pointer Outs.

Or the Allman Brothers trademark, for musical performances, the name Allman Brothers or Allmans and another musical act comes along and bills itself the Allmaniacs.

Or the Righteous Brothers trademark, for musical performances, the name Righteous Brothers and another musical act comes along and bills itself the Righteous Dudes.

[ghostsinthemachine]

10. Know how many "Dead" bands there are?

The Deadbeats
Dead Ahead
Grateful Bluegrass Boys
Dark Star Orchestra etc... Millions of them using some form of the name and you don't see the Dead suing any of them. (of course the Dead just made 55 million plus last month and don't need the money)

[Dr Hobbitstein]

11. The first and last are 100% legit.

The second one may not be, but that's because The Allman Bros are named after Greg and Duane Allman, the two brothers founding the group. A play on their surname isn't the same as common words like doobie, pointer, or righteous.