Danish band Big Fat Snake has thrown out their guitarist Peter Viskinde. Now a curious scene unfolds as both the surviving bandmembers and Peter Viskinde claim that the band name belongs to them. Yesterday several interviews circled around the subject “who had the idea for the band name”. Essentially that question doesn´t matter…What matters is who owns the rights for the band name. So I looked in the Danish Trademark Register, and behold there is a registration!
The owner of the trademark (VA 1996 02610)Â is…Peter Viskinde. So the exiled guitarist owns the trademark and the rights to use the band name. [Update: its a shelved application…so Peter Viskinde had the application but lost it!] The next question would have been”Is there a formal agreement between the bandmembers regulating the use of the band name and throwing out of band members?”. My guess is no since these are creative types and not business types.