We have a clear winner in the battle of the two Jelly Rolls. The Philadelphia band Jellyroll has dropped its lawsuit against singer Jelly Roll. The band originally sued the singer over Jelly Roll's nickname, claiming copyright infringement.
This comes after a court filing on July 9. Kurt Titchenell, the leader of Jellyroll, agreed to drop the claims against the singer. "The dispute with Jason Bradley DeFord, a.k.a. Jelly Roll, has been resolved, and the legal action has been withdrawn," Titchenell said in a statement on Tuesday, July 9. "We look forward to our continued use of the name, Jellyroll Band, in connection with our party band business."
However, it's not clear that the parties reached any settlement or why Jellyroll decided to change its stance. The band has been around since 1980 and performed at "celebratory and charitable events" in the Northeast. The suit claimed that Jelly Roll's rise in popularity negatively affected its own.
"Prior to the Defendant's recent rise in notoriety, a search of the name of Jellyroll on most search engines, and particularly Google, returned references to the Plaintiff," the filing read. The attorney pointed out that Google returned upwards of "18-20 references before any reference to Plaintiff's entertainment dance band known as Jellyroll® can be found."
Jelly Roll Lawsuit Dropped
The news comes after the band publicly blasted the singer on social media. I should point out that Jelly Roll isn't even a stage name for Jason. It's literally what he's been called since he was a child.
The band wrote, "We have become aware of, and you may have heard of, another 'Jelly Roll', who has recently gained some fame in the country music scene - Jason DeFord, the Nashville area crossover singer-songwriter. It's imperative that we avoid confusion for our band that has been performing as JELLYROLL® for over 40 years."
The band wanted the singer to drop his act, and well I guess you can see how that went over.
They continued, "Therefore, we have an obligation to inform the public that Mr. DeFord performing as 'Jelly Roll' is misleading, and an infringement on our band's JELLYROLL® trademark. We have run into issues with our social media accounts, search engine optimization, Google Ads, as well as overall brand recognition."
The band believed that the singer caused confusion in Philadelphia. They wrote, "The related promotion of his performance at the popular local Philadelphia Jingle Ball has caused confusion within our fan base resulting in multiple inquiries requesting information on the event. This is to clarify that the original JELLYROLL® is not part of this event."
