One Direction countersue US band with same name

It's the legal battle of the boybands as the chart-topping whippersnappers take action…

One Direction are countersuing the US band who accused them of stealing their name earlier this year, according to reports.

In April, a US group who also use the moniker One Direction filed a lawsuit against the chart-topping boyband, claiming that they had formed in 2009 and had registered the name with US Patent and Trademark Office before The X Factor runners up even met.

According to Rolling Stone, however, Simon Cowell’s charges have responded by taking legal action of their own and insisting that the Californian troupe stole the name from them.

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“There is a dispute with a local group in Northern California about the ownership of the One Direction name in the US. Despite One Direction’s management’s attempts to resolve the situation amicably, the Californian group are continuing with their lawsuit claiming that they own the name in the US,” said the band’s representative in a statement.

“One Direction’s lawyers have now had to file an Answer and Counterclaim in order to defend and assert the band’s right to use their name. The Answer and Counterclaim makes it clear that it is One Direction who have prior rights to the name in the US as it was One Direction who used the name in interstate commerce in the US first.”

Despite their widespread popularity, One Direction have found themselves under attack in recent weeks. Last month (May 26), Kasabian’s Tom Meighan described the boyband as “five little dicks”, while earlier this week (June 21), band member Zayn Malik was accused of “enciting jihad” and “pimping Islam” to young female fans in a savage online attack by a US right wing blogger.

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