Who doesn’t enjoy a good Eagles song? Many people grew up listening to the popular band, and even today some of the band’s more famous songs are easily recognizable by even members of the younger generation. Take the band’s catchy tune, Hotel California, for example. However, the band recently settled a lawsuit it filed against a Mexican hotel, Hotel California Baja LLC, to prevent it from “calling itself Hotel California.” Since agreeing to the settlement, the hotel “withdrew their application for a U.S. trademark.”
Who doesn’t enjoy a good Eagles song? Many people grew up listening to the popular band, and even today some of the band’s more famous songs are easily recognizable by even members of the younger generation. Take the band’s catchy tune, Hotel California, for example. However, the band recently settled a lawsuit it filed against a Mexican hotel, Hotel California Baja LLC, to prevent it from “calling itself Hotel California.” Since agreeing to the settlement, the hotel “withdrew their application for a U.S. trademark.”
According to reports, the decision to “dismiss the suit was mutual.” The lawsuit itself was filed in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, and on the day that the two parties agreed to call the lawsuit off, the “U.S. Patent and Trademark Office accepted the company’s request to abandon the hotel’s application.”
So why did the band sue the hotel company in the first place? Well, according to the lawsuit, the band alleged “that the company was attempting to mislead hotel patrons into thinking that they had sanctioned the use of the song title by playing the Eagles’ music around its property.” Additionally, the band was concerned the hotel’s choice of the Hotel California name was “part of a campaign for the hotel to sell merchandise such as T-shirts and posters that was branded ‘Hotel California.‘”
In response to the allegations. The hotel company denied any wrongdoing, and said “it was unlikely fans would be confused.”
So what is the history behind the hotel’s decision to use the ‘Hotel California’ name? For starters, the hotel “which is located across the U.S. border about 1,000 miles south of San Diego,” opened in 1950 and was actually called Hotel California when it opened. Over the years, the hotel churned through a handful of different owners who changed the hotel’s name from one to another over time. When it fell under the ownership of John and Debbie Stewart in 2001, the couple restored the hotel’s name back to the original, Hotel California.
Seems innocent enough, especially considering the fact that the Eagle’s didn’t even record their hit song Hotel California until their 1976 album. When discussing the song, Don Henley, who wrote the song along with Glenn Frey and Don Felder, “the tune was intended as commentary about their surroundings.” He added, “we were all middle-class kids from the Midwest. ‘Hotel California’ was our interpretation of the high life in Los Angeles.”
Despite the settlement announcement, representatives of the Eagles and Hotel California Baja LLC have yet to return requests for comment.
Sources:
Eagles Settle Lawsuit Over Hotel California Name
Eagles v. Hotel California: After Lawsuit, Band Reaches A Settlement
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