The short version
- Super producers Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo are in conflict over the rights to the name The Neptunes.
- The duo had enormous success around the turn of the millennium, with hits for e.g. Jay-Z, Britney Spears and Snoop Dogg.
- Pharrell applies to register the trademark, Chad Hugo claims this is happening without dialogue with him.
- The childhood friends must have had an agreement for all years to share everything equally between them.
- Hugo’s lawyer is open to expanding the case to include already existing registrations.
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According to documents reproduced by Billboard, super producers Pharrell Williams (50) and Chad Hugo (50) are now fighting over the rights to the name they operated under: The Neptunes.
The duo became a big name in the late nineties, and in the 2000s they were the very sound of urban American pop, R&B and hip hop – with hits for artists such as Jay-Z, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Gwen Stefani and Snoop Dogg.
For the past ten years, they have lain low as a duo, while Pharrell has become a pop star on his own and by name, particularly via the solo hit “Happy”, the Daft Punk hit “Get Lucky” and Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines”.
– Long, simmering dispute
The mood is less happy now: According to Billboard, Pharrell has applied to register the trademark “The Neptunes” for several types of use: streaming music, music videos and live performances.
Chad Hugo and his lawyer Kenneth D. Freundlich claim that the applications were submitted without any form of dialogue with Hugo.
Pharrell’s representatives defend the trademark applications by saying that they are only intended to ensure that no outsiders can appropriate the Neptunes name.
Yet Freundlich goes so far as to accuse Pharrell of fraud by omitting Hugo from the application.
They believe that Pharrell and his company are attempting to unilaterally register the trademarks.
According to the case documents, this is in breach of the duo’s long-standing agreement to share everything equally between them.
Pharrell’s representatives say that there has been no bad intention behind the trademark registrations, and that they have tried to contact Hugo to share ownership and administration of the trademark.
– If Pharrell’s intention was to include Chad, he should have registered their names jointly or as a partnership and not in his own name, says Hugo’s lawyer to Billboard.
He refers to the whole thing as “a long, simmering dispute that has not yet been resolved”.
Hugo’s lawyer is also open to expanding the case to include existing registrations.
Pharrell’s company has already been granted The Neptunes as a registered trademark for music recordings.
In addition, there is an application to register the name for clothing and other fan effects.
In the case documents, Hugo’s lawyers write that the registrations covering music recordings, “and possibly others”, could be subject to future legal action.
The goal is to make them known invalid.
