Kling Klang battle, update

A short follow-up to this previous post:

One can sense a little bit of friction between the band Kling Klang and their management. Again according to Drowned In Sound, the band has issued another statement, in which they begin to conclude that "some members from their management failed completely to represent correctly their ideas about the entire matter. And blaming them for a misrepresentation that sprung from an ill informed employee is not right."

More quotes from the same article:

“In Cologne on Sunday 6th April the UK band Kling Klang were issued with a document by representatives of Messrs. Ralf Hutter & Florian Schneider of the German band Kraftwerk. The document is an order to cease and desist using the name "Kling Klang" as the name of the group. Since Messrs. Hutter & Schneider own the single-word trademark "Klingklang" (the name of Kraftwerk's studio, and publishing/merchandising companies), they feel that use of the two-word term "Kling Klang" as a band name is an infringement of their trademark rights.

“The UK band Kling Klang arrived at the name by way of an onomatopoeic reference to a guitar improvisation of binary structure, and were under the impression that "klang" is a German word for sound, with "kling klang" meaning "bell-sound" (similar to "ding dong" in English). The term appears to be in popular usage in more than one language, including Swedish, and the band in no way thought they would be infringing upon the trademark rights of Messrs. Hutter and Schneider in utilizing this term as a name for the group.

“Kling Klang holds Kraftwerk in the highest esteem as musicians and hope to resolve this matter quickly and amicably.”

Kraftwerk are known for having made similar threats before, sometimes valid but sometimes not at all, for ending auctions of bootlegs, promos and similar collectors items from eBay, and for having sent rather unpleasant threats of legal action to force a fan to delete a site with an address that contained the word Kraftwerk. It will be interesting to see where this ends.

Kling Klang battle

Liverpool based rock band Kling Klang, currently on tour supporting Portishead, has been legally threatened by Kraftwerk for using the name Kling Klang. The band has, obviously, borrowed the name from Kraftwerk's studio in Düsseldorf. According to this Drowned in Sound article, Kling Klang (the band) are not that keen on the idea of coming up with a new name. Quoted from the article:

The band seem to be defiant though – management asserting that: “even though it is fairly true that Kling Klang drew the inspiration for their name from the admiration for Kraftwerk’s immense contribution to modern music, it is also true that the expression ‘kling klang’ is not Kraftwerk’s creation.

“In fact they have registered as a trademark the word ‘klingklang’, without hyphens or separation spaces and that is for certain their ‘invention’.”

"We do understand where Kraftwerk's request originates from," the statement continued; "and that we will do our best to find a way to make every party happy and to solve the thing peacefully because we do admire Kraftwerk very much. But still, Kling Klang as a name has an affective meaning for all the band."

The band intend to consult a legal advisor, saying that they are “not too prone to accept Kraftwerk’s request”. They go on to state that the multimillionaire kraut-rock legends should be "paternally gratified" that a band have chosen to find inspiration in the work they’ve produced.

“It is not like ‘Kling Klang’ is a brand name, like ‘Xerox’,” the band's management continue. “It is an idiomatic German phrase, so we really don’t see the substance of their claim. We were aware of Kraftwerk’s notorious bent in sueing people and we were expecting the notice from one moment to another since we first stepped on German soil.

“And they way they have notified the claim was even funny… We received the letter in the form of a fax from some random promoter and the notice had all our addresses on it, kinda ‘we know where you live’ style.”

Note: The Drowned In Sound article has just been changed and shortened. It now reflects the "views of the management" only, and most of the above text has been deleted.

Bonus: Pictured above, front/left, are Kraftwerk's Synthanorma Modell 316, made by Fa. Matten + Wiechers in Bonn in 1976. This picture is from the Computer World era.

Related:
Other things named Kling Klang.
The songs that Kraftwerk stopped.