André 3000 and Big Boi, who make up the iconic hip-hop duo OutKast, have filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against electronic music duo ATLiens. Billboard information.
The anonymous and masked bass music tandem shares a name with OutKast's second album, ATLienswhich was released in 1996 through LaFace Records and Arista Records.
“The word ATLiens was invented by OutKast,” the duo said. “Before OutKast created it, it was not used in the cultural lexicon and did not exist. Defendant's use of the ATLiens mark may cause confusion, lead to mistakes, or deceive the public.”
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The title track remains one of OutKast's most popular songs, receiving over 186 million streams on Spotify as of this writing. The record is “one of OutKast's most recognizable and valued songs,” according to the lawsuit, which also criticizes ATLiens' repeated performances of the song during their DJ sets.
André 3000 and Big Boi have also criticized ATLiens' distinctive masks, which the lawsuit says lead to confusion surrounding the two groups' identities. OutKast's legal team reportedly attempted to “negotiate an amicable resolution to the dispute,” but ATLiens continued to use the name “in a confusing manner.”
“The duo that makes up Defendant performs wearing masks, thereby concealing their identities so that consumers mistakenly believe that the members of Defendant are the same person as Plaintiff (or at least are somehow connected to Plaintiff),” Outkast's attorneys said.
ATLiens has not commented publicly on the lawsuit as of this writing.
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