Four music-related trademark stories arrived almost simultaneously this week.
Lady Gaga defeated a lawsuit alleging that her Mayhem album and merchandise infringed a surf company’s trademark. FKA twigs won an important stage in her name dispute with an indie duo called The Twigs. Christian metal band Demon Hunter sued Netflix and AEG Presents over KPop Demon Hunters. C+C Music Factory co-founder Robert Clivillés filed a $30 million lawsuit challenging Freedom Williams’ ownership and use of the group’s name.
It looks like a sudden outbreak of music-industry litigation. It is not quite that simple. The timing is partly coincidental, but the underlying conditions are not.
It all points to the trend that, over the past decade, music has become a global brand economy specifically in how an artist name can now identify a streaming profile, concert tour, apparel collection, fan membership, film franchise, social account and licensing business. That expansion has also given artists many more opportunities to collide, thus asking parties to prove their trademarks more frequently.
Music is worth fighting over again
The recorded music industry generated approximately $15 billion globally in 2015, when streaming was beginning to reverse nearly two decades of decline. In 2025, global recorded music revenue reached $31.7 billion, according to IFPI.
At the same time, more trademarks are entering the marketplace. The US Patent and Trademark Office received 503,889 trademark application classes in fiscal year 2015. In 2024, it received 767,138 — an increase of roughly 52%. The office says the exceptional volume of applications filed in recent years has also produced more contested cases before its Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.
That does not prove trademark lawsuits are exploding. The federal judiciary found that filings remained relatively stable between 1996 and 2018. The more supportable conclusion is that more names are being registered and monetized across more commercial categories, creating more potential conflicts.
The album title does not stay on the album anymore
Lost International did not sue Lady Gaga merely because she called an album Mayhem. The surf company argued that Gaga carried the name — and a similarly branded logo — onto clothing and accessories, where Lost already sells Mayhem-branded products.
Lost reportedly sought $100 million and an order preventing Gaga from using the branding. A federal judge ultimately dismissed the lawsuit, finding that Gaga’s use was artistically connected to the album and did not explicitly mislead consumers.
The case demonstrates how the modern music rollout increases an artist’s legal exposure. An album title becomes a tour name. The tour name appears on hoodies. The hoodie is sold online and shipped globally. What began as an expressive work quickly enters the ordinary consumer marketplace.
Between 2022 and 2024, the number of artists with fewer than one million monthly listeners selling merchandise through Spotify more than tripled, while their sales volume increased more than sixfold, according to Spotify.
Streaming eliminated the safe distance between similar names
Two similarly named bands could once operate in different cities, scenes or countries without creating much confusion. Their records were stocked in different stores and their shows appeared in different local newspapers. Streaming brought everyone into the same search bar.
A mistaken profile can affect recommendations, statistics, royalty accounting and the identity fans associate with a name.
The Demon Hunter lawsuit shows how much larger that problem can become. The Christian metal band has recorded and toured under its name for roughly 25 years. It alleges that Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters has expanded from a film into music, merchandise and an AEG-promoted live tour — bringing the property into direct overlap with the band’s business.
Demon Hunter’s complaint cites alleged real-world confusion, including a customer who spent $500 on tickets to a Demon Hunter concert while believing they were purchasing tickets to the Netflix production. The band is seeking to stop Netflix and AEG from using the name and is asking for damages. The lawsuit’s filing does not establish that Netflix has infringed the band’s rights.
Trademark law encourages everyone to act early
A trademark registration does not come with government enforcement. The USPTO tells owners that they are responsible for monitoring their marks and pursuing potential infringers. That creates an incentive to send cease-and-desist letters, oppose applications and file claims before another use becomes entrenched. Waiting can make enforcement substantially harder.
FKA twigs’ latest victory demonstrates the danger. Her conflict with The Twigs began around 2013, when she was still building her career. The duo sued in 2014 but dropped the case after failing to secure an injunction. They revived their objections years later and reportedly demanded a seven-figure payment to allow the names to coexist.
This week, Judge Jed Rakoff ruled that their infringement claims were barred by laches — a doctrine that can prevent claims after an unreasonable delay. The ruling does not resolve every remaining trademark question, but it delivers a clear warning: a rights holder cannot necessarily watch another artist build a global identity for a decade and then reclaim the dispute once that identity becomes immensely valuable.
Even dormant names are active assets
The C+C Music Factory lawsuit represents a different problem: who owns a group’s identity after its original structure falls apart?
Freedom Williams obtained federal trademark rights connected to the name years after appearing on the group’s biggest recordings. Co-founder Robert Clivillés argues that Williams was a featured performer rather than an owner and that C+C refers specifically to Clivillés and his late creative partner David Cole.
Their disagreement regained urgency following Williams’ involvement in the politically controversial Freedom 250 concert series. Clivillés is now seeking cancellation of the trademark, an end to Williams’ use of the name and at least $30 million in damages. Williams has not yet responded publicly to the new complaint.
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