A celebrity family feud is taking place because of a trademark of the family name.
According to TMZ, trouble is brewing within The Isley Brothers‘ family after Rudolph Isley accused his more famous brother Ronald Isley of silently obtaining the rights to The Isley Brothers’ trademark without telling him. In doing so, Ronald is the sole owner of the trademark and is the only one profiting off the family name.
Rudolph has filed a lawsuit against his younger brother. The older brother is suing Ronald over the rights to “The Isley Brothers” trademark. He states that Ronald, without his knowledge and behind his back applied and got approval to place The Isley Brothers trademark in his name and basically cut him off from profiting off the family name.
In the legal paperwork filed, Rudolph stated that he and his brother, Ronald agreed to equally split all the profits that the group will make. They are supposed to each have a 50% ownership in The Isley Brothers’ name since their other brother O’Kelly passed away back in 1986. Rudolph says in the lawsuit that Ronald went and applied for the exclusive rights to The Isley Brothers’ name.
The lawsuit shows that Rudolph asserts Ronald applied for and was granted the exclusive rights to “The Isley Brothers” for use on “visual recordings and audiovisual recordings featuring music and animation.” He did so back in August and claims that Ronald needs his approval to make a move regarding the group’s name.
The initial filing of placing the trademark in Ronald’s name was started in November 2021. Before Ronald took that action, Rudolph claims that the duo previously split all the profits between the two for some big transactions, which included a multi-million dollar publishing deal. Now, he wants an accounting to be done to see just how much money his brother has made since he applied for the trademark.
Rudolph is also requesting that the court step in and announce that “The Isley Brother” trademark is owned together by him and his brother. He’d like for Ronald to give him half of any money that he has made off the trademark since he obtained the rights to it.
