Neil Young and his band, the Chrome Hearts, are being sued by fashion giant Chrome Hearts for trademark infringement.
The lawsuit, obtained by Complex, was filed on Thursday (September 11) in a California federal court. In it, lawyers for Chrome Hearts LLC define the brand’s ownership "of the CHROME HEARTS® word mark, and composite trademarks comprising the CHROME HEARTS mark and design components," Since 991.
The brand alleges that Young and his band are infringing on the company’s trademark by selling "Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts" merchandise that "incorporates the exact CHROME HEARTS® word mark and is thus likely to cause confusion with Chrome Hearts' various Chrome Hearts Marks."
"The likelihood of confusion is not merely hypothetical," reads the complaint. "Some clothing and apparel vendors have apparently already mistakenly assumed that there is a connection between NYTCH and Chrome Hearts, and are actively promoting that purported connection."
"For example, some vendors have started marketing t-shirts that prominently display Mr. Young’s name along with Chrome Hearts’s iconic stylization of the CHROME HEARTS® mark," the claim continues.
The brand claims to have notified Young in July about the alleged trademark infringement, but the band continued to tour and sell merch anyways. Now, Chrome Hearts wants Young and the band to stop using the name altogether.
Young introduced his Chrome Hearts backing band in 2024. That year, they released a debut album, Talkin to the Trees.
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