Neil Young Hit With Lawsuit Over ‘Chrome Hearts’ Band By Fashion Brand With Same Name

A year after Neil Young launched a new backing band called The Chrome Hearts, the rock legend is now facing a surprising new problem: A trademark infringement lawsuit from a decades-old fashion brand with the exact same name.

The case, filed Thursday, comes from Chrome Hearts, a luxury brand that’s been using that name since the late 1980s for apparel, jewelry and accessories. Its lawyers say the name of Young’s new group – which debuted last year and released an album this summer – is clearly infringing the company’s “unique and valuable” name.

“Defendants’ continued use of the confusingly similar [Neil Young & The Chrome Hearts] name in commerce violates Chrome Hearts’ valuable intellectual property rights,” reads the lawsuit, obtained and first reported by Billboard. “Defendants have intentionally and knowingly capitalized off of confusion between the Chrome Hearts [trademarks] and the NYTCH name.”

For decades, Young has toured and recorded off-and-on with the band Crazy Horse, often under the name Neil Young and Crazy Horse. But last year, after he called that group’s summer tour due to an unspecific illness in the band, he debuted out The Chrome Hearts at FarmAid in September. The new group released its debut Talkin to the Trees album in June, and has been on a world tour this summer.

That was all apparently unwelcome news for Chrome Hearts, a Los Angeles-based brand that says it has sold apparel and other goods under that name – often written in a Gothic script with stylized cross – since 1988.

In its lawsuit this week, the company claimed that consumers are going to be confused by Young’s new name — mostly by mistakenly believing that the fashion brand has launched an official sponsored collaboration with the iconic singer.

“The likelihood of confusion is not merely hypothetical,” Chrome Hearts’ lawyers write. “Some clothing and apparel vendors have apparently already mistakenly assumed that there is a connection between NYTCH and Chrome Hearts, and are actively promoting [it.]”

Trademark law doesn’t grant anyone an absolute monopoly on words, and it only protects a brand name to the extent that it’s used on similar goods or services in a way that confuses consumers into falsely thinking there’s a connection. That’s why Delta Air Lines and Delta Faucet can both peacefully co-exist on completely different products.

Would music fans really be misled into thinking there’s connection to a fashion brand when they see “Chrome Hearts” next to Neil Young’s name on an album cover or a concert poster? That could be a difficult case for the company’s lawyers to prove in court. But the use of “Chrome Hearts” on band t-shirts and other similar merchandise might be a closer case.

To support that crucial confusion argument, Chrome Hearts cites several previous collabs with musical artists, including The Rolling Stones, Madonna, Rihanna, Drake, Lou Reed and Cher. The company also says Timothée Chalamet wore a Chrome Hearts leather suit on a red carper last year while promoting his Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown.”

“The Chrome Hearts brand has become iconic, especially in the fashion and music industries,” the group’s lawyers say. “And that was the intention. From the very beginning, the company placed special emphasis on promoting the Chrome Hearts brand among and with the help of musicians.”

Earlier this summer, Chrome Hearts says it reached out to Young’s team with a letter “respectfully requesting” that he stop using the name. But they say those efforts were unsuccessful – meaning the company “is now forced to bring this complaint to protect its valuable and longstanding intellectual property rights.”

The lawsuit is seeking an injunction that would immediately force Young to stop using the Chrome Hearts name, which the group is currently using each night on its “Love Earth Tour” across Europe and North America. It is also seeking damages, though it did not specify how much.

Representatives for Young and attorneys for Chrome Hearts did not immediately return requests for comment on Friday.