Steve Perry has filed a petition against former Journey bandmates Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain over trademark registrations of 20 popular Journey songs.
According to the paperwork filed with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the trademark registrations of the 20 Journey songs were for the use of creating clothing merchandise. Some of the merchandise types listed include t-shirts, hats, jackets, hoodies, socks and more. Some of Journey’s most popular songs were part of these trademark registrations including “Open Arms,” “Separate Ways,” “Anyway You Want It,” “Wheel In The Sky” and more.
Perry’s petition claims Schon and Cain did not consult him about these trademark registrations. Perry claims he should have been notified of the registrations per a previous legal agreement they had relating to various Journey compositions that were created when Perry was still in the band. (It should be noted that all 20 songs submitted for trademark registrations are from the era when Perry fronted Journey. A number of those songs were either written or co-written by Perry.)
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Furthermore, Perry asserts in his petition that since Schon and Cain both transferred their various interests in Journey to a third party under a joint LLC, they relinquished certain rights, thus, making their trademark filings illegal. Perry, meanwhile, noted in the petition that he has not transferred his interests in Journey and is still the sole owner of them. Additionally, Schon and Cain sold their Journey song ownership rights to Hipgnosis in recent years. Perry has not.
Perry hopes to cancel the trademark registrations with his petition. As of publishing, Schon and Cain have yet to comment on Perry’s actions and his claims in his petition.
