Last year, Neil Young began to play shows with a new backing band that he called the Chrome Hearts. Then, in June, Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts—featuring Young, Micah Nelson, Corey McCormick, Anthony Logerfo, and Spooner Oldham—released their debut album, Talkin to the Trees. Now, Young and his bandmates are being sued by the Los Angeles fashion brand Chrome Hearts for trademark infringement.
Chrome Hearts LLC filed its complaint in a California federal court on Thursday, September 11. The lawsuit was first reported by Billboard.
In the complaint, obtained by Pitchfork, lawyers for Chrome Hearts outline the brand’s ownership “of the CHROME HEARTS® word mark, and composite trademarks comprising the CHROME HEARTS mark and design components,” dating back to 1991.
They argue that Young and his bandmates are infringing upon the brand’s trademark by selling “Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts” (NYTCH) merchandise that “incorporates the exact CHROME HEARTS® word mark and is thus likely to cause confusion with Chrome Hearts’ various Chrome Hearts Marks.”
“The likelihood of confusion is not merely hypothetical. Some clothing and apparel vendors have apparently already mistakenly assumed that there is a connection between NYTCH and Chrome Hearts, and are actively promoting that purported connection,” they claim. “For example, some vendors have started marketing t-shirts that prominently display Mr. Young’s name along with Chrome Hearts’s iconic stylization of the CHROME HEARTS® mark.”
According to the complaint, Chrome Hearts notified Young’s team in July about the alleged trademark infringement, but the band continued to tour under the banner and sell merchandise. Through the lawsuit, Chrome Hearts is now requesting that Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts stop using the name.
Pitchfork has reached out to representatives for Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts and lawyers for Chrome Hearts LLC for comment.