Eagles tribute bands face off in Nashville court over branding, cover songs
This battle of these bands won’t be on a stage — it’ll be in a courtroom.
Two Eagles cover bands are fighting in Nashville court over who can use which song arrangements and names associated with the classic rock band.
One tribute band called Hotel California "A Salute to the Eagles" alleges that another Eagles cover band named 7 Bridges represented itself in advertisements as Hotel California — the only band with official authorization from the Eagles.
Unlike most trademark and copyright cases in the music industry, the Eagles aren’t part of the suit.
"Normally it would be the Eagles suing one of those bands or both of those bands,” said Rush Hicks, an associate professor of music business at Belmont University. “But to have two (tribute bands) suing each other, and they're not even the owner of that trademark, that's interesting.”
7 Bridges declined to speak with The Tennessean about the allegations and has not yet responded in court.
Hotel California filed a trademark lawsuit against 7 Bridges in Davidson County Chancery Court on March 13, and it said a second lawsuit over copyright issues is forthcoming, but that lawsuit has not been filed as of publication.
Hotel California hired a third party to create orchestral scores of Eagles songs in 2017, which the band arranged for performance. Hotel California owns the copyrights to the orchestral scores.
Until recently, they were the only Eagles tribute band with an orchestral show, the lawsuit says. Then 7 Bridges started doing orchestral shows, and not only did they advertise the shows as being “presented by Hotel California: A Salute to the Eagles and the entire symphony,” they used Hotel California’s orchestral scores without their permission.
The yet-to-be-filed copyright lawsuit will be over 7 Bridges’ alleged unauthorized use of the orchestral scores. The trademark lawsuit focuses on the misleading advertising, which Hotel California argues caused “actual confusion regarding whether it was scheduled to perform.”
If that’s true, it would be a bad sign for 7 Bridges.
“In trademark law, it’s real simple: avoid confusion in the marketplace,” Hicks said.
The lawsuit asks for $50,000 or more in compensatory damages from the 7 Bridges. Hicks said that in terms of trademark lawsuits, that’s not that much money.
“Just my opinion – they’re going to spend $25,000 to bring the lawsuit. So I’m curious why they would do that,” Hicks said.
Maybe, Hicks guessed, there’s more to the story.
“That, then, makes me think there's some personal vendetta here,” Hicks said.
Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him at emealins@gannett.com or follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @EvanMealins.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Eagles cover band sues competitor for trademark, copyright
