US 'One Direction' Band Suing UK 'One Direction' Band for $1m

by Emily Sutherlin | June 21, 2012 at 10:45 am

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British boyband One Direction is being sued by an American group which claims they owned the name first.

The U.S. One Direction has filed a law suit, asking for a court order to force Simon Cowell's X Factor UK-formed group to change its name, according to TMZ.

In the documents, the American band says it formed in 2009 - a year before Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson had even met.

In addition to building a reputation around the name, the Americans claim they also beat the Brits in a race to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office -- filing a trademark application for "One Direction" long before their UK counterparts.

Manager Dan O’Leary told The Sun: “I don’t care how powerful Simon Cowell is. He’s mad if he thinks we’re going to lie down, sit down or back down over this — whatever power and money he has behind him. We’re not going to be pushed around by some music mogul.

“The British One Direction have Mr Cowell’s enormous resources behind them. We on the other hand do not. In our view, we were here first. We have rights, we have talent, and we have heart.”

All five members of the chart-topping UK band are named in the federal lawsuit filed on Monday in California Central District Court along with Cowell’s company Syco and Sony Music Entertainment.

O’Leary, whose band’s sales are tiny in comparison to their UK namesakes, is demanding $1million (£630,000) in damages and three times the massive profits racked up by the British One Direction.

He claimed he asked Cowell to change the name of his act BEFORE they started to tour America, where they made history by reaching No1 on the Billboard charts with their debut album.