Philadelphia wedding band, Jellyroll, lead by founder Kurt Titchenell, has filed a federal lawsuit for trademark infringement against the prominent rapper-turned-country singer Jelly Roll. Jelly Roll otherwise known as Jason DeFord has been stealing a major source of revenue for their band after he rose to fame.
“Prior to the Defendant’s recent rise in notoriety, a search of the name of Jellyroll. returned references to the Plaintiff,” the complaint reads “Now, any such search on Google returns multiple references to Defendant, perhaps as many as 18-20 references before any reference to Plaintiff’s entertainment dance band known as Jellyroll can be found.”
For decades, the wedding band known as Jellyroll has been active, long before DeFord assumed his current alias. Titchenell argues that DeFord’s rising fame has infringed on their 2010 registered trademark, thus hampering their career prospects. For those of you who follow things like SEO, you’ll realize that this has crushed the wedding bands organic SEO which they spent years cultivating online. Prior to Jelly Roll taking all their search traffic, the band was making much more by being able to book gigs from internet users searching the name Jellyroll.
The lawsuit elaborates that the renowned wedding band, Jellyroll, has graced a myriad of “celebratory and charitable events” across the Northeast since 1980. The band has even had two performances at the White House during the tenure of President George W. Bush.
Having previously worked for an SEO company, I can confidently say the fluctuation in organic traffic significantly could affect the wedding band’s revenue stream. Some clients often invest in SEO to appear on local pages. However, if they’re struggling to find their band’s name in their city of origin and only discovering themselves several search pages in, their booking status is undoubtedly suffering. This is particularly concerning considering the past coverage by local papers; their results should appear first for that city.
The recent announcement of Jelly Roll’s new tour has heightened concerns about further suppression in search results. Jellyroll, the band, is pursuing a court order to halt Jelly Roll’s use of the name, with specific regards to his impending performance at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center in October.
This story was first reported by Courtwatch.
