Briana Cash v. Interscope Records
Briana Cash Sues Interscope Records
“Briana Cash, did everything right to protect her name, brand and reputation – and Interscope just bulldozed right over it!”
Los Angeles — The Dhillon Law Group, on behalf of plaintiff, award-winning and internationally acclaimed singer-songwriter Briana Cash, filed a lawsuit in federal court yesterday against Interscope Records, its parent company Universal Music Group, and musician Brianna Castro for her unauthorized use of the stage name “Brianna Cash”, in violation of a federal trademark.
Cash, who owns a federal trademark registration for “Briana Cash”, is alleging that her income and reputation have been damaged by persistent confusion with Brianna Cash amongst fans, consumers, business organizations, and others.
Cash also lost a substantial amount of followers on social media after Castro’s song with controversial rapper Tory Lanez was released because of fan outrage arising from the confusion.
“Names are important. This shouldn’t happen to anyone,” Cash said. “It’s a sad day when a record company intentionally profits from the name and trademark of an independent artist.”
Prior attorneys for Cash sent Castro three cease and desist letters, but Castro and Interscope continue to use the stage name Brianna Cash and her fans regularly use it in social media posts.
“Our client, Briana Cash, did everything right to protect her name, brand and reputation – and Interscope just bulldozed right over it,” said Ron Coleman, partner at the Dhillon Law Group. “It’s rare for a major entertainment company to choose a stage name for a new performer that someone else in the field is already using, especially when it’s her own name. It’s even more rare that she’s been using that name for decades as a successful artist. But this might be the first time all those things happened even though the artist actually registered her name as a trademark!”
Cash is currently working on a TV Docuseries slated for release on Paramount+.
The lawsuit seeks damages in an amount “sufficient to fairly compensate Plaintiff for the injury she has sustained plus all profits that are attributable to the infringing sale of goods and services…”
About Briana Cash:
Briana is an award-winning singer-songwriter. Her music has been licensed for TV and film. She is a member of SAG-AFTRA, Guild of Music Supervisors, The Society of Composers and Lyricists, The Alliance for Women Film Composers, The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, and a voting member of The Recording Academy. Her music considered in eight categories for the 58th Annual Grammy Awards.
Briana’s song, “Cranberry Lake” is in the award-winning film, Aga. Written and directed by Milko Lazarov and produced by Veselka Kiryakova. Bulgaria’s submission into the 2020 Oscars best international feature category. The film premiered at the Berlin international film festival in 2018. Aga went on to be screened at a number of international film festivals, including Sarajevo and Valladolid, where it won awards. In October 2018, Aga was the main winner at Bulgaria’s Golden Rose film festival, collecting awards in the best film, best director and best cinematography categories. Briana had the honor of working with award winning composer Penka Kouneva.
