Niall Horan and his pals win the right to keep the name after they reached an agreement with a U.S. band that used to have the same name.
- Sep 4, 2012
AceShowbiz - The boys of the British group One Direction composed of Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, and Louis Tomlinson can now continue using the boyband's name as they have already reached an agreement with a U.S. musical group that used to go under the same name. This news has been confirmed after both parties issued a press release from London.
The relatively unknown U.S. group will now go under the name Uncharted Shores, and they have since updated their official website, Facebook page, iTunes, and Twitter URLs. One Direction's U.K. boys were happy about the result of the agreement.
The issue was first raised after the U.S. band started receiving hate mails and death threats from fans of the U.K. band because of the similarity of their name. The former then asked Simon Cowell's label, Syco Entertainment, and Sony Music to stop using the name "One Direction" in all of their promotional materials. They also want a share on the profits acquired by the U.K. quintet.
According to the lawsuit filed by the U.S. band in April, the 5-piece British-Irish boyband only started using the name in 2010 whereas the U.S. pop-rock band had been using the name since 2009, proven by the two albums that they had already released. They also had claimed a U.S. patent by 2011. They took legal action because the defendants "chose to ignore the plaintiff's rights and willfully infringed them."
The quintet who have chart-topping songs including "What Makes You Beautiful" are set to have a world tour starting February 2013 at The O2 Arena in London. This will be their second roadshow following the success of their "Up All Night" tour which began in December of 2011 and ended July of this year.
