#little mix5

[katytaylorsversion]

Perrie Edwards without makeup is so pretty

[flamediel]

cnco's trademark

aye, part two to this post!

so at this point in my research, the only question I had was about Sony's role in CNCO. according to both Sony Entertainment's wikipedia page and the official site, cnco has been signed to sony until the company went defunct in 2020. now this doesn't really make sense if Sony Latin was their record label since they were formed, so I tried to figure out what this meant.

My first thought was that Syco Entertainment owned the trademark for CNCO's name and logo. since they coproduced La Banda with Saban Capital Group and Univision, it makes sense that they could have created and trademarked the name. however, when I searched up the trademark holder is when I found something a little weird.

The CNCO, Mix5, and La Banda trademarks are all held by a corporation called Musica Entertainment LLC. That corporation was wholly owned and managed by Anthony 'Tony' Benton until November 3 2014 when it was administratively dissolved (ie, the government dissolved it because the company manager didn't submit necessary documents). Tony's LinkedIn bio describes him as creating projects and events that uplift marginalized voices. especially in music. he even has a record label to do just that. So it makes sense that he was involved with La Banda, or even pitched the idea of a Latin American boyband to Simon Cowell (we all knew Simon was looking for the next big band by then anyway, but I doubt he would have decided to tackle the LatAm market without someone else). His company holding the trademark wouldn't normally be weird, we can assume he was part of the project since it fits into his resume.

the thing is, all those trademarks I talked about? they were filed AFTER the company dissolved. For example, the CNCO trademark in the EU was filed on Dec 9 2015. (They also had a US trademark filed the day before that, but they stopped extending that in 2019. My guess is that they deemed CNCO as a big enough brand for the EU trademark to hold under common law, so paying for the same one in the US was unnecessary). Now, this doesn't really make sense. the company doesn't exist anymore, so using its name to file a trademark is incredibly misleading. From a legal perspective, it opens up a couple of pathways I want to talk about:

1) who is liable for damages caused by the trademark? usually, this would be the person or company who filed it. But that company didn't legally exist when the trademark was filed, and doesn't now. so liability can go in one of two ways. it can land on Tony for being the sole shareholder of the company and thus the person who filed the trademark on its behalf. But he's not the one using the trademark: CNCO and their team is. So, its possible that it will land on them, too, especially if whoever is suing considers them a more valuable target. All of this could have been avoided if they'd registered the trademark with a company that EXISTED, since then the liability would have been limited to the assets in the company (basically just the trademarks since it's a paper company) but now there is legal ground to go further for anyone who's seeking damages.

2) If the company that owns the trademark doesn't really exist, can CNCO, or Sony or anyone who is actively using the trademark, make a case for acquiring it? I mean, we could argue that the value of cnco doesn't really lie in anything Tony is doing but in the band and the label, and because it's registered to a nonexistent company they could potentially hire an IP lawyer and claim it. that would probably gove them a lot of control over their music and promo since they'd have a direct stake in the brand, but of course it would increase their liability tenfold. idk, just something to think about.

At the end of all this, I didn't actually fond out WHY they were listed as artists under Syco entertainment. My best guess is Syco had some rights to them as part of their rights to La Banda, but I found absolutely nothing concrete on this. I just wanted to share this info on the trademark, since I think it's really interesting how it's owned by someone completely uninvolved with them and "owned" on really rocky terms. basically, I'm a huge nerd who did a ton of legal research for fun. and hey. thank you @jane-ray for the help!

Tagging @the-sun-is-dark, @bombshellbre95, @mamita-5, @mind-of-tavia, @chrisdiels-babygirl, @anninhiliation, @cnc-oh-boi, and @sapdfrvelez.

if anyone has any questions, my inbox is open!!

[sethrollinsgirl]

I’m so ready for little mix5 this album is gonna be the best yet.