Don Henley and Eagles Rock Band Lose Trademark Infringement Suit Against Non-Profit Eagle Protection Group

ARCHIVED 2002–2016: Originally distributed via the eWire press wire service. Preserved as historical record.

SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE |

Conservation & Wildlife

Corporate Responsibility

Science & Technology

Syndication Partners

**************************************************************************

E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE

**************************************************************************

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Don Henley and Eagles Rock Band Lose Trademark Infringement Suit Against Non-Profit Eagle Protection Group

TENNESSEE, PIGEON FORGE, Jun. 20 -/E-Wire/-- The non-profit American Eagle Foundation (formerly named National Foundation to Protect America's Eagles) is very pleased that they have won the trademark infringement lawsuit brought against them in 1998 by Don Henley and the Eagles rock band. The judge has yet to hear the Foundation's request to recover attorneys fees and court costs, which will be filed on June 22, 2001. The Foundation is also considering the possibility of seeking other relief. The band's lawsuit had challenged the Foundation's use of its educational and fundraising WWW.EAGLES.ORG website address,'800-2EAGLES'phone number and 'American Eagle Records' compact disc and video distribution label, and sought payment of specific damages. The conservation and environmental organization was formed more than a decade ago to restore and protect America's endangered and threatened eagles, and is headquarted at the Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

"We're glad this is finally over. We were in the right all along", said Al Cecere, president of the non-profit Foundation. "Unfortunately, it took four years of defensive legal fighting to stop the rock band's frivilous litigation. We've viewed their claims as completely baseless and their demands for damages unreasonable. Over the years, we've always held out an olive branch, and never protested the band's use of their own eagle-themed marks. We made a number of good faith efforts to settle this dispute gracefully and positively, with our tradenames and property left fully intact, but the band wouldn't quit the suit until now."

Throughout the four-year dispute,the Foundation had strongly objected to all charges filed against it by the rock band, both in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in Knoxville's Federal District Court. The Foundation was eager to vindicate its name and reputation and defend its educational and fundraising toll-free phone number, website address and record label trademark at trial, which was scheduled to begin on June 11, 2001.

The trademark dispute began four years prior to the Eagles band losing the lawsuit last week. The rock band (Eagles, Ltd., a California corporation, and Eagles Recording Co., a Colorado corporation) had claimed that the Foundation's use of its own 'American Eagle Records' mark, '800-2EAGLES' phone number and WWW.EAGLES.ORG website address somehow competed with their "Eagles" music business trade names. The suit also alleged that the Foundation's eagle-themed marks confused the public and harmed the band's record sales and famous name.

"Considering the nature of our conservation cause, it's obvious why we use the words 'eagle', 'eagles' and 'American eagle' in promoting our public education and fundraising activities.", said Cecere. "The words 'eagle' or 'eagles' have been associated with the U.S.A.'s national symbol for over two hundred years now. Since the founding of our nation and the time of George Washington, those words have been used by tens of thousands of commercial companies to promote products and business. In fact, eagle-themed words have been used in hundreds of songs and many entertainment enterprises, some long before the Eagles rock band was born. The fame and popularity of these words in history and folklore certainly precedes the band".

"We're grateful to Collen Law Associates of Westchester County New York. Their team of trademark specialists believed in and worked hard on this case from the beginning", said Cecere."These good people help make things right for the little guy in a lawsuit crazy world."

"The Eagles rock group has been unrelenting over the past four years in their litigation against this genuine non-profit eagle care and protection group", said Foundation trademark attorney James Hastings. "At one point, they sent a team of lawyers and paralegals to the Foundation offices to dig through their files for days and have forced our client to defend themselves against numerous filed motions over the years. The Foundation has truly been unjustly burdened, distressed and damaged by the band's deliberate bullying tactics."

"This week, we'll be asking the judge to award the Foundation its court costs and legal fees. We are also carefully considering our further legal remedies", said Foundation attorney Jess Collen. "There's a section of the Trademark Act that will entitle the Foundation to compensation if the court agrees with our claim that this suit should be considered an exceptional case, due to what we see are abuses of the legal process by the band. Their attorney came to court a couple days before trial and asked the judge for dismissal because they had 'lost' the case. Just a few days earlier, they had filed a motion to change the trial date citing that band member Don Henley and manager Irv Azoff were on a European tour with the band and could not appear as witnesses. We vigorously opposed that motion. The judge decided in our favor and denied the band's request. The band has known about the trial date for almost a year and had already extended the date once before. The Foundation was fully ready for trial, and even had to cancel some fundraising and public education activities, including an annual benefit "Concert For America's Eagles" scheduled to take place the same week as trial."

Since May of 1995, the Foundation has used its own 'American Eagle Records' tradename to distribute a "Save The Eagle" song and eagle conservation Public Service Announcements (P.S.A.'s) featuring donated performances and messages by country music stars, such as Tanya Tucker, Ricky Skaggs, Shania Twain, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Clint Black, Terri Clark, Deana Carter, James Rogers, Lee Greenwood and Reba McEntire.

The American Eagle Foundation is a tax-exempt non-profit organization dedicated to public environmental education and the recovery of the U.S.A.'s threatened national symbol, the Bald Eagle. It rehabilitates injured and/or orphaned eagles and raptors for reintroduction into the wild and breeds permanently disabled eagles and raptors to help increase wild populations. The Foundation is widely recognized as a national leader in bald eagle conservation work, which is its full-time mission.

American Eagle Foundation

http://WWW.EAGLES.ORG

**************************************************************************

To Transmit Your News Over E-Wire, visit http://www.ewire.com or

call 1-[REDACTED-PHONE]. E-Wire Is Broadcast To Millions Of Readers Worldwide

**************************************************************************