As per a November 29th news story, Ratt band members, Stephen Pearcy, Warren DeMartini and Juan Croucier had won the legal rights to use the band name while cutting out former drummer, Bobby Blozter.
Now Blozter’s attorney, Drew Sherman, has responded by stating that, Pearcy, DeMartini and Croucier, do not have the legal rights to use the name, either. He tells Mitch Lafon on his podcast (via blabbermouth.net), that no judgment has been entered either against or in favor of Blotzer. “Essentially, WBS owns the name,” the attorney said. “They — meaning Stephen, Juan, Warren — whatever they’re going out as, they do not have permission to [go out as Ratt]. So right now they’re infringing the trademarks of Ratt owned by WBS. The ruling that we have, there are many legal strategies that will be employed in order to change and bring to the court’s attention various other pieces of evidence as well as prior rulings,” he continued. “So it’s a long time before this is done. We’re not even at the appeals part yet, because there’s no judgment to appeal. So there’s a lot of time. Status quo will remain, and WBS owns the marks.”
Sherman also addressed the fact that Pearcy, Croucier and DeMartini recently announced that they will perform — as Ratt — at next year’s edition of the M3 Rock Festival, set to take place on Friday, April 28th, 2017 and Saturday, April 29th, 2017 at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland. He said, “They do not have permission to play the M3 [as RATT], they do not have permission to advertise it as such. And I’ll just say this: right now, to throw that out there, to make these announcements, these press releases, without having a [court] judgment, I would say is very ill-advised. And I’ll leave it that for now.”
8 Responses
These geniuses do realize that their lawyers are totally exploiting them for whatever money they have left, right?
Hard to tell if this is the attorney speaking, could be Blotzer….This is reminiscent of Blotzer trying to justify branding his touring band as Ratt, and Blotzer is the brand CEO, er drummer….
75% Ratt >>>> 25% Ratt
Ok, Ratt had some good songs back in the day many of which still stand the test of time. But let’s be honest here, in the grand scheme of things, are they that relevant to be warranted this much attention by the press? How many bands have you ever heard say they were heavily influenced by Ratt? When was the last time Ratt was a headliner and sold out an arena? Stevie Pearcy has always been a real jerk. If these knuckleheads grew up, acted like grown men and toured together, could they do a stadium tour like gnr? They wouldn’t even sell out most clubs.
I think the people who are actually playing on stage are more important than the band name at this point. I would gladly pay to see Warren DiMartini, but not Bobby (no disrespect to him, he’s just not who I want to see).