BBC News reports that The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain is engaged in a trademark dispute with The United Kingdom Ukulele Orchestra. The former group, which has been performing for nearly three decades, is seeking to prevent the latter group, formed in 2009, from using what the former considers to be a confusingly similar professional name. The story serves as a cautionary tale for musicians, bands, and performing acts of all types, and highlights the fact that securing trademark protection for your stage name can be a critical step in maintaining your professional reputation (and averting a full-scale ukelele melee). Read the full article here.

By Eve (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons.

Reposted from BBC News.