LOS ANGELES – (PRNewswire) Mr. Emilio Rojas Martinez of the musical group Los Alacranes (The Scorpions) has hired trademark attorney, Cheryl Hodgson of H Law to represent him. Hodgson has filed an action before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board against Aquila Records Inc. to cancel Aquila's trademarks registration Nos. 3170684 & 3416668 for the marks "ALACRANES MUSICAL."
The band performed locally in Arizona since the mid 1980's, releasing their own recordings, followed by a1990 release on Ayana Records entitled Los Alacranes de Durango. Rojas has his own pending applications at the Trademark Office, and is the owner of LOS ALACRANES in Mexico, with a date of first use of September 1985. Los Alacranes has recorded and released six CD's and continue to perform their music today.
Rojas' cancellation proceeding comes at a time when the industry has been fixated upon a lawsuit pending in U.S. District Court in Chicago Case # 09CV3399 filed by Aquila against Oscar Urbina, Jr. and other founding members of yet another group using the name ALACRANES MUSICAL. The suit alleges several claims including copyright and trademark infringement of Alacranes' name and logo, based upon transfer to Aquila as part of a recording contract.
Hodgson states, "The Chicago litigation is much ado about nothing since it is questionable whether either party in Chicago has the prior valid trademark rights to ALACRANES for a musical group in the same genre. The claims of both groups in the Chicago action post date Mr. Rojas' rights in the mark ALACRANES by more than a decade." Hodgson also notes, "Transfer of rights in a group name to a record company by an artist with prior use as part of their recording agreement is completely at odds with well established industry custom and practice."