The Courtesans in dispute with X Factor contestants Eileen Daly Duo

The Courtesans in dispute with X Factor contestants Eileen Daly Duo

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The Courtesans, a four-piece London-based all-female doompop band, have been in a trademark dispute over the name with The X Factor contestants duo Eileen Daly and her partner.

Self styled ‘Kooky’ singer Eileen Daly and her partner have appeared twice on this year’s X Factor programme once in the audition stages and last week on the live section of the show last week under the name ‘Eileen Daly and The Courtesans.’

London’s The Courtesans a band who have been together since 2011 are confident that the name will be theirs and are awaiting adjudication in October. They told us exclusively that “We were always a tight unit but it’s funny when you have someone attacking you it brings you even closer together, we firmly believe the name The Courtesans is ours.

When we started, we did a research on that name which returned no results, it’s the evidence that will decide ultimately and we look forward to the adjudication, this has been like a ball and chain for us, we have nothing to do with the music or the persona of the other party involved! They have inferred we have used their “success” in the music industry to expand our profile.

But you need to have success in the first place to make that type of accusation, which is something that we have questioned. That amount of success or lack of it is what will be decided upon. In the end a name is only a name and the music will speak for itself!”

Daly’s decision to compete on The X Factor this year (at the same time that girls scheduled their debut album release) seems odd considering her opinion of the talent sourcing show here: https://nickgilmartin.wordpress.com/tag/eileen-daly

Quote from Daly: “Is the X Factor the work of Satan? -I think Satan has better taste. More likely the work of Mammon. This show and its multi-headed offspring are pointless, depressing and destructive.”

The Courtesans recently released the sumptuous goth tinged pop single ‘Genius’ watch the video here:

  1. If the X-Factor contestant gets further/wins, the name will be hers. I know from experience that they have some of the best lawyers in the business. Shame really.

    1. Not necessarily Nick, a few years back the charity Rhythmix were in dispute with the Xfactor over the name of a new girl group, that girl group is now called Little Mix, exactly because they disputed it.

      1. I think the official reason for “allowing” the charity to keep their name was not a legal one, unfortunately. Courts ruled in X Factor’s favour and there was such a backlash the producers stepped in, if I remember rightly.

  2. The decision should be in favor of The Courtesans based on Eileen Daly’s appallingly unprofessional behavior.

    She’s resorted to petty name-calling better suited to a teenage girl rather than a 51-year old woman.

    1. Although obviously immensely thankful for your support – I’m afraid that Eileen’s appalling behaviour won’t be taken into consideration (unfortunately haha) . Whichever way it goes I can assure you guys – the truth (evidence) will come out in the open. Much love xxx

  3. “Daly formed The Courtesans, while her other musical project Jezebel was put on hold. The duo play a combination of what they describe as “gypsy, glam and rock”. Their debut single featuring Webcam Girl was released in 2007

    and followed up with an EP entitled Elfing About. They often perform around London and Southern England together with appearances at festivals in Glastonbury, Bram Stoker International Film Festival andItaly. They released their self-titled debut album one song at a time for digital download throughout 2013 and 2014.

    Despite having formed in 2006, the band were faced with a trademark dispute with an all-female “doom pop” band who only began using the name in 2011.[37]”

    The devil is in the details…

  4. This is bullshit. Eileen had the name first, end of. There’s no way a band that formed in 2011 has any claim on a band name that someone else has been using already. Eileen’s band had a record out two years before you even existed. Perhaps you should have tried asking her nicely before resorting to half-baked pseudo legal speak. If there’s one thing worse than a bully it’s a gaggle of bullies. You people are fucking appalling.

    1. The Courtesans, all-female four-piece doom rockers from London, have won their dispute over the name ‘The Courtesans’ in a landmark trademark case against The X Factor contestant Eileen Daly.

      The band’s manager Howard Toshman trademarked the name in August 2013 which was subsequently opposed by Ms Eileen Daly, who claimed that she had been using the name since 1998.

      Since the four-piece took on the name, they have been subject to a tirade of online abuse from Ms Daly: depicting them as four monkeys, accusing them of buying Facebook likes (which is something the band or their management have never done although is something Ms Daly freely admits to doing herself), suggesting they should be her cleaners, as well as playground name calling, and even going as far as saying that the four members and their management had committed fraud. The Courtesans meanwhile remained silent throughout

      Howard Toshman, the band’s manager, commented on the tribunal win:
      “Having a band name is not just about saying ‘this is my band’s name and that’s it’, you need to put the work in with your band, play shows, release records, build a fan base; you need to build an amount of goodwill and reputation for it to become your name. When we took the name, there was no other band called The Courtesans in existence. There was no social media: no Facebook, no YouTube, no Twitter, no website domain, no Wikipedia, nothing.

      All of Ms Daly’s ‘The Courtesans’ videos went up on YouTube after the date we registered the trademark, all of her social media was created after we had established The Courtesans name on those platforms.
      Ms Daly was unable to provide any evidence of usage of the name The Courtesans at the tribunal even though she was represented by a trademark lawyer.

      When Ms Daly’s lawyer was asked at the tribunal why Ms Daly’s band had such a small on-line fan-base, the response was that her audience were too elderly to use and understand the internet.”

      In summing-up, adjudicator Ann Corbett said:
      “much of her evidence is contradictory, unclear or unfocussed and subject to a certain degree of exaggeration…the claim made under section 5(4)(a) falls at the first hurdle.”

      The full adjudication can be seen here:
      http://www.ipo.gov.uk/t-challenge-decision-results/t-challenge-decision-results-bl?BL_Number=O/480/14

      This situation, wholly created by Ms Daly, has been somewhat of an uncreative process for the band but we can put it behind us now and just get on with what is really important: making music that we love and playing some great shows all over the world in 2015.

      The whole band would like to thank everyone for their support throughout this time.

      Much love, The Courtesans xxxx

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