MACHINE HEAD Win Trademark Lawsuit, Reschedule Dates

MACHINE HEAD announced a favorable and decisive ruling by the United States District Court, Northern District of California, in the band's trademark case against Dewey Global Holding, Inc., a commercial sound design company based in Venice, California, which also conducts business under the name MACHINE HEAD (the same company that has registered the web domain name www.machinehead.com). In a 26-page decision, the court ruled that the band is entitled to continue to use and maintain its trademark registrations for the name MACHINE HEAD, determining that the bands use does not violate any rights of Dewey Global. After Dewey Global filed an action in March of 1999 to cancel the band's trademark registrations and threatened to attempt to stop the band from using the name MACHINE HEAD as well as demanding the destruction of all existing merchandise and recordings, the band filed its Declaratory Judgment Action in Federal Court. Dewey Global unsuccessfully argued that, based upon its prior use of the name MACHINE HEAD for commercial sound design services ("since 1991"),the band's use of the name MACHINE HEAD (since 1992) created a likelihood of consumer confusion. The court disagreed, ruling that no likelihood of confusion existed due to the substantial differences between the goods and services provided by the respective parties. "We peacefully co-existed for seven years, and now Dewey Global claims that — all of a sudden — there's some sort of problem. We've been defending our right to our name and our identity ever since" said MACHINE HEAD frontman Robert Flynn. Flynn also stressed that "from the very beginning we were willing to and repeatedly tried to settle this so that we could both continue to co-exist. They didn't want any part of that, so it forced us to spend a ridiculous amount of time, effort and money fighting their meritless case." The band intends to file a Motion with the Court to recover its attorney's fees.

In other news, MACHINE HEAD were forced to reschedule the first eight dates of their upcoming Supercharging America tour (also featuring DARWIN'S WAITING ROOM and 3RD STRIKE) to the tail end of the trek due to an unfortunate snowboarding mishap over the holidays that left Robert's wrist severely sprained. The tour now begins in Albuquerque, New Mexico on January 20th. The confirmed dates so far are as follows:

Jan. 20 - Albuquerque, NM @ Sunshine
Jan. 22 - Lubbock, TX @ Pavilion
Jan. 23 - Dallas, TX @ Deep Ellum
Jan. 24 - Austin, TX @ Backroom
Jan. 25 - Houston, TX @ Engine Room
Jan. 26 - New Orleans, LA @ Howlin' Wolf
Jan. 27 - Tallahassee, FL @ Floyd's
Jan. 29 - Lake Buena Vista, FL @ Hob
Jan. 30 – Ft. Lauderdale, FL @ Culture Room
Jan. 31 - Tampa, FL @ Masquerade
Feb. 01 - Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade
Feb. 02 - Atlantic Beach, NC @ Ziggy's
Feb. 04 - State College, PA @ Crowbar
Feb. 05 - Washington D.C. @ 9:30 Club
Feb. 06 - Clifton Park, NY @ Northern Lights
Feb. 07 - Philadelphia, PA @ Trocadero
Feb. 08 - New York, NY @ Irving Plaza
Feb. 09 - Worcester, MA @ Palladium
Feb. 12 - Cincinnati, OH @ Bogart's
Feb. 13 - Cleveland, OH @ Odeon
Feb. 14 - Columbus, OH @ Al Rosa Villa
Feb. 15 - Detroit, MI @ Harpo's
Feb. 16 - Chicago, IL @ The Vic
Feb. 17 - Madison, WI @ Barrymore
Feb. 19 - St Louis, MO @ Mississippi Nites
Feb. 20 - Lawrence, KS @ Bottleneck
Feb. 22 - Minneapolis, MN @ Quest
Feb. 23 - Omaha, NE @ Ranch Bowl
Feb. 24 - Wichita, KS @ Little Uptown
Feb. 26 - Denver, CO @ Ogden
Feb. 27 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Dv8
Mar. 02 - San Francisco, CA @ Fillmore