One Direction win legal battle to keep their name

Chart stars One Direction are to keep their name after reaching a deal with a US act with whom they had been locked in a legal dispute.

The What Makes You Beautiful singers — who appeared at the Olympics closing ceremony last month — had faced action from the Californian rock band who had already been using the same name.

The US group was claiming more than £600,000 (€758,000) in damages, a share of profits and hoped to get the British quintet to stop using the name.

However, now both sides said they have reached an agreement and the trademark dispute had been “resolved amicably”.

The US band are to change their name to Uncharted Shores — the title of one of their two albums.

The group made of four lads from Britain — Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, and Louis Tomlinson — and Niall Horan from Mullingar was formed two years ago for The X Factor.

They have gone on to take the US charts by storm with their debut release Up All Night becoming the first by a UK act to debut at No 1 on the Billboard album chart.

A joint statement issued on behalf of both groups said: “All of the parties involved are pleased with the resolution and wish each other success.”

The US group — formed in 2009 — filed a lawsuit earlier this year after they said efforts to “negotiate a reasonable compromise” had failed.

And they said the British group’s representatives had been aware a year earlier about their claim to the name which they said had been registered by them as a trademark.

“They chose not to use a different name. They chose to press ahead, using the exact same name, One Direction, setting up the current difficulties and confusion in the United States,” the US act said in a blog.

Last year there was ano-ther legal dispute over the use of a name by an X Factor group. Little Mix, who won the 2011 series and are currently high in the charts with ‘Wings’, were originally called Rhythmix, a name already adopted and registered by a music charity which then ran up legal fees defending its use of the trademark.

The band, which has sold more than 1.6m records, will be performing at The O2 in Dublin on Mar 5 and 6, 2013.