Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Las Vegas band Sin City Sinners sues Affliction clothing chain

Sin City Sinners

Sin City Sinners

With no shortage of sinners in Sin City, can the phrase "Sin City Sinners" be trademarked?

That's a question raised Thursday when Las Vegas rock band the Sin City Sinners sued the Affliction Inc. chain of clothing stores, alleging trademark infringement.

The Sin City Sinners band and founding members Brent Muscat and Todd Kerns complained in the lawsuit that Affliction, which has stores in Las Vegas at the Hard Rock Hotel and around the world, has been selling Sin City Sinners apparel.

A look at the Affliction website shows it's marketing Sin City Sinners T-shirts, hooded jackets and caps. That's in addition to its line of "Sinful" tops, bottoms, swimwear and accessories.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for Nevada, says that after the Sin City Sinners band was formed in 2007, the group has performed professionally in Las Vegas, Hollywood and Los Angeles and that now it's looking at doing gigs in other states as well as Canada and Japan.

During performances it sells clothing, CDs and memorabilia carrying its Sin City Sinners brand. Some of this music and merchandise is also distributed by iTunes, CD Baby, Amazon.com and the band's website, the suit says.

Affliction, in the meantime, opened its flagship store at the Hard Rock Las Vegas in October 2009 at a time when the Sin City Sinners was the house band at the Wasted Space club at the hotel-casino, the lawsuit says.

"Plaintiffs are the exclusive owner of the mark and trade name" and have applied for federal registration of the trademark, the lawsuit says.

Records show that trademark application was filed on March 16 -- after Affliction started selling the clothing at issue. The application covers t-shirts and entertainment/live musical performances. So far, no one has contested the application.

"At least as early as October 2009, defendants knew or should have known that plaintiffs were doing business as and performing under the brand name Sin City Sinners and offering merchandise for sale to fans of the hard rock music genre that included the mark," the lawsuit charges.

The suit alleges cease and desist letters were sent to Affliction by the Sin City Sinners band with no response.

"Plaintiffs are the exclusive owners of the mark, together with all goodwill associated with the mark," the lawsuit says.

"Defendants' willful and intentional unauthorized use of the mark and/or trade name, or a mark confusingly similar thereto, in connection with the production, marketing, display and/or sales of its clothing products has caused and/or likely will cause consumer confusion as to the source of those goods and/or as to the sponsorship or approval of such goods by plaintiffs," the lawsuit alleges.

A request for comment was placed with an attorney who represents Affliction in unrelated trademark litigation.

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