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Straight up! Southern Comfort Band resists name-change demand

By Andy Campbell
The Brooklyn Paper
Eddie Sarkis’s band, Southern Comfort, has been ordered to stop using the name of a popular syrupy spirit by the company that makes it. But the band is ignoring the demand.

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Talk about a rebel yell!

Members of Bay Ridge’s hottest classic-rock tribute group, the Southern Comfort Band, is resisting incessant demands to stop using the same name as the slightly better known liqueur.

Brooklyn Conservatory

Lead guitarist Eddie Sarkis — best known for his covers of Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers — received a cease-and-desist letter from the makers of Southern Comfort late last year insisting that he change his band’s name and Web site, www.southerncomfortmusic.com, by Sept. 16.

He has received several such letters since — all threatening legal action.

“I’ve been ripping them up,” Sarkis told The Brooklyn Paper, taking a few minutes to remind readers of the Southern Comfort Band’s next gig, on March 5. “I’m not sure if I’ll be fined, but I doubt it. We’re just a small group with a southern edge — south Brooklyn, that is — and it’s really no big deal.”

Indeed, with the September deadline long gone, it’s unclear whether the liqueur maker will go beyond the letter-writing phase and make a federal case of it.

But the manufacturers were serious — at least last year.

“The public associates the Southern Comfort brand and its products with music,” lawyer Jill Jacobs wrote in her Sept. 2 letter to Sarkis. “Your use of ‘Southern Comfort’ in your band’s name … is likely to cause the public to mistakenly believe that you are associated with, authorized by, or sponsored by Southern Comfort Properties when they are not.”

Previously, courts have upheld the rights of trademark owners in cases where other business names could confuse customers.

The former F-line Bagels on Smith Street was forced to change its name — cleverly, by reversing the F on its signage — after a Metropolitan Transportation Authority cease-and-desist letter, fraught with concerns that subway patrons would confuse the shop’s name with an MTA sponsorship.

But if Sarkis’s next show says anything, it’s that this bird, you cannot change (oh whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa).

Southern Comfort Band at the Leif Bar [6725 Fifth Ave. between 67th and 68th streets in Bay Ridge, (718) 680-0909] on March 5 at 9:30 pm (barring legal action, of course).

©2010 Community Newspaper Group

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Reader Feedback

Publius from Bklyn Heights says:
I have no problem with the name. I do have a problem with that Confederate flag, which represents seccession and the defense of slavery and brutality against African Americans.
Feb. 16, 2010, 10:20 am
Joey from Clinton Hills says:
Ugh! Andy, if you want to report on intellectual property issues, you need to know the difference between a Trademark and a Copyright. This is a Trademark infringement issue. Trademark owners are obliged to police their marks or they become worthless.
Feb. 16, 2010, 12:20 pm
Charles from Bk says:
I have no sympathy for this band, and I hope they get a trademark ass-wipping in federal court. The use of the confederate flag as a back-drop shows a lack of humanity, decency and common understanding. What this band thought was great publicity is probably going to backfire, as in Brooklyn, we celebrate the demise of the south in 1865. Free bird this ...
Feb. 16, 2010, 12:28 pm
Brooklyn Bobby from Sheepshead Bay says:
Are you kidding? I'm all about rooting for the underdog but in this case the underdog is acting more like an ass. Find a more creative name and ditch that flag. What's next, playing Wagnerian music with electric guitars and waving a Nazi flag?
Feb. 16, 2010, 2:05 pm
Loyal Fan from Bay Ridge says:
They shouldn't have to change their name. No one is going to confuse buying liquor and the name of a neighborhood bar band.
This was NOT a publicity stunt! Maybe you should get a life!!! Too freakin bad if your offended by the confederate flag. They are there to play good Southern Rock not to rip off anyone's Trademark or show lack of humanity or deceancy.
Feb. 16, 2010, 2:09 pm
A fan of the band from Midwood says:
How stupid do you think we are in the center of the universe to confuse liquor with a band name? And Andy, you really brought attention to something that may now not go away...all for a freakin' byline...happy?
Feb. 16, 2010, 2:14 pm
Johnathan from Bay Ridge says:
Do they know what the flag stands for? They probably thought it was a cool back drop. If they are fighting a large corporation over a name they can't be that smart.
Feb. 16, 2010, 2:35 pm
Joey Bots from Bath Beach says:
You liberal fools have no sense!!! You "Johnny come lately' Brooklyn 'residents' should go back to your Mommy and Daddy's house in the Midwest (or where ever you freaks come from) and leave our beloved town to the adults who can think and know our county's history!!! This band has not tried to offend or horn in on anyone's trademark. Bay Ridge is a very strange place to all of the soul less new comers in the sense that the sons and daughters of earlier waves of immigrants love America and all of it's music and traditions!! Even Southern Music..which was very popular in Bay Ridge in the 70's as opposed to the Disco music your parents were digging at the time!!!
Feb. 16, 2010, 9:29 pm
Eddie from Bay Ridge says:
Not sure why this story had to be rekindled.
It seemed to have been over and done with 6 months ago. I guess I will now have to change the bands name.
We do not condone any form of racism.
The ' flag' was given to the band by someone.
It is actually on a few Southern Rock Albums as well as the other Flag we have that looks like a Jack Daniel's Lable ( I feel another lawsuit coming ) but we don't condone alcoholism.
I never said I ripped any legal documents up. It was suggested to me that I do, but I didn't.
Let's just put this story to rest and report on the great music my two bands make.
See you all March 5th at The Leif.
Feb. 17, 2010, 10:09 am
Ace from New Utrecht says:
keep the name, lose the flag.

Iain Matthews soon signed with MCA Records for his first solo effort, Matthews Southern Comfort (1970), which featured former Fairport bandmates Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol. He eventually formed a band of the same name, recording two albums for MCA
Feb. 18, 2010, 11:33 am
Illumina Records Block Party from MA says:
The iconic Allman Brothers Band is returning for a short tour run in New York City starting March 11. The United Palace Theatre in New York will house these southern rockers from March 11 through the 20. This is a very limited tour; so catch them while you can!

Visit Illumina Records Block Party for more information such as album releases and show dates, as well as juicy celebrity news on the best national and local bands! http://www.illuminablockparty.com/

New issue is coming soon! Keep checking back!
March 4, 2010, 2:27 pm

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