Greg Ginn, founder, guitarist, and lone continuous member of late 70’s punk band Black Flag has recently filed a lawsuit against his ex-bandmates for using the name FLAG and the Black Flag logo for their new version of the band, currently on tour.
FLAG, whose members include Keith Morris, Dez Cadena, Chuck Dukowski, and Bill Stevenson all were originally from Black Flag. Now, Greg Ginn who has reconvened Black Flag for a new album and tour is now suing all four individuals for trademark infringement, stating that his record label, SST Records, own the exclusive rights to the band name and logo. Ginn has also named ex-member Henry Rollins in the suit, accusing him and Morris of “lying to the Trademark Office on registrations; using his own label’s record covers to feign as though they’ve been continuing to use Black Flag since 1979, and in an what’s alleged to be an act of ‘outrageous fraud,’ using bootleg SST t-shirts in an attempt to show they’ve been making such products in that time,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. Ginn is seeking an injunction against FLAG’s tour, which kicked off in May and is set to culminate this September in Los Angeles pending the outcome of the suit.
Black Flag made headlines earlier this year when Ginn and original frontman Ron Reyes announced that Black Flag would play Hevy Fest 2013 in England, and a few months later released their first new song in over 20 years. With a studio album in the works and a world tour about to kick off, Ginn feels that the use of Black Flag’s logo for FLAG’s tour will create confusion to fans.
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