Band Names

I play in a cover rock band called Airborne and we have been using that name for a year or so. A short time ago, we heard of another band with the same name except they spell it Airbourne. They are from Melbourne Austrailia and have apparently been around since 2005...they have a major recording contract, at least one international album release and have been touring internationally. Our Airborne is a cover band and we only play in the Vancouver area. We are now wondering if we should change our name to avoid any legal problems but have invested some time and expense in promotional materials, logo, webpage, etc. as well as establishing a following based on the name/brand Airborne. We would like to continue useing the name Airborne as long as we are not liable to be sued. We are wondering what our legal position is and if the fact that the names have different spellings has any bearing on the situation. Please advise.

Thanks

Hey mate,
Just to be on the safe side, I personally would. However, your name is spelt differently so to be perfectly honest their shouldn't be any legal problems if your planning on just staying a cover band and not planning on getting a 'Major' contract.

Usually it's only a problem if you are threat to them in the world of business. I am a lawyer and have seen many a case such as this and have had petty squabbles due to this with little groups that aren't signed.

But as i've said before just to be on the safe side I would, because you might not be a major band and your name is spelt differently but there can be problems.

Hope this helps.

I agree you likely will not have a problem locally as you have been using the name--but if you start to collide with the other band in other markets, there could be issues and you would seem to be potentially conflicting with their prior use of the very similar name.

My brothers and I all have the surname Green and want to call our band Gangreen - but I did some searching and found a band from Boston called Gang Green that have been around since the 80's. We are from Western Australia - Am I to understand that if we were to remain local it should be fine but if our success were to somehow amazingly grow in the future would we have to change our name?