Jelly Roll Sued For Trademark Infringement By Wedding Band Called Jellyroll

Country music star Jelly Roll has been sued for trademark infringement by the Philadelphia-based wedding music band, Jellyroll.

The complaint from Jellyroll was filed in federal court on Monday (8 April), with the news that “Philly’s favourite wedding band” (per the Philadelphia Inquirer) sued the singer only landing online overnight.

According to the complaint, Jellyroll founder Kurt Titchenell has accused Jelly Roll (real name Jason DeFord) of trademark infringement and claimed that due to the singer’s increased popularity over the last year, in particular, it’s become more difficult for potential clients to find the wedding band.

Titchenell stated that the band had used the name Jellyroll since 1980. In the court documents, Titchenell’s lawyers wrote, via Billboard: “Prior to the defendant’s recent rise in notoriety, a search of the name of Jellyroll … returned references to the plaintiff.

“Now, any such search on Google returns multiple references to [the] defendant, perhaps as many as 18-20 references, before any reference to plaintiff’s entertainment dance band known as Jellyroll can be found.”

The pair seemed to coexist just fine until Jelly Roll experienced his breakthrough as a country star with Son Of A Sinner in 2021 and Need A Favor last year. His success earned him three Country Music Awards this year.

The complaint claims that Titchenell’s attorneys sent a cease-and-desist notice to Jelly Roll and had “several conversations” with the star’s team over the trademark issue.

Titchenell’s lawyers added, “Despite his receipt of a demand to cease and desist using [the] plaintiff’s registered service mark, [the] defendant has ignored this demand and continues to use [the] plaintiff’s registered service mark knowing that it continues to irreparably harm plaintiff but has nevertheless callously disregarded the rights of [the] plaintiff to his own service mark.”

At the time of publication, Jelly Roll’s team didn’t respond to Billboard’s request for comment.

Earlier this year, Jelly Roll announced the Beautifully Broken tour—his biggest-ever headline jaunt—taking on 37 cities across the US with special guests Warren Zeiders and Alexandra Kay. Given that he's still yet to perform live on our shores, there are hopes he’ll bring the tour to Australia soon.