Outkast Sue EDM Duo Called ATLiens for Trademark Infringement

Outkast have filed a new lawsuit seeking to uphold their right to the term “ATLiens. ” They claim an EDM duo is calling themselves ATLiens without permission and that the duo trademarked the name without their knowledge.

Early in the suit, Outkast uphold the fact that they originated the term “ATLiens,” the title of their second album. “The album’s title is a portmanteau of ‘ATL’ —an abbreviation for Atlanta, Georgia — and the word ‘aliens,’” the lawsuit explains for everyone who wasn’t into southern hip-hop in 1996. “The word ATLiens was invented by Outkast. Before Outkast created it, it was not used in the cultural lexicon and did not exist.”

The defendants in the suit, which was filed Tuesday in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia Atlanta Division and spotted by Court Watch, are an Atlanta-based EDM duo called ATLiens. “Upon information and belief, Defendant selected the name ATLiens for their EDM duo to trade upon the tremendous fame and goodwill associated with Plaintiff’s ATLiens album, song, and mark, or, at a minimum, to call to consumers’ minds Plaintiff’s famous ATLiens album, song, and mark,” the filing contends.

In 2020, the EDM duo registered the ATLiens name as a service mark with the U.S. patent office, unbeknownst to Outkast. The company that owns the EDM duo’s mark is ATLiens Touring, Inc., while Outkast’s company, the official plaintiff in the suit, is High Schoolers, LLC. High Schoolers, LLC have five ATLiens registrations pending. “Plaintiff also did not give consent or approval to Defendant to file a service mark application directed to the ATLiens mark or any variation thereof,” the suit claims.

The EDM duo’s mark covers music composition, production, entertainment services, and providing music online, among other business actions. Outkast’s five pending marks seek to cover music videos, downloads, merchandise, printed books, and other goods.

Outkast allege in the lawsuit that the EDM duo’s trademark has already been causing confusion. They’re asserting “senior rights,” calling the album ATLiens and merch with the term on it as establishing “common law rights” in the Nineties, where the EDM duo claim to have first used the mark in 2012. Outkast have requested a Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Cancellation Proceeding. Incidentally, Googling “ATLiens” first produces the website for the EDM duo and then the Wikipedia page for Outkast’s album.

“Apart from their use of the identical mark, ATLiens, the similarities between the Plaintiff and Defendant are substantial,” the filing claims. “For example, both are duos from Atlanta, Georgia, both perform and record music in related musical genres (hip-hop/R&B and EDM), and both have promoted their music, live performances, and related goods and services using space and/or alien-themed imagery.”

Outkast do not like how ATLiens perform in masks, “thereby concealing their identities such that consumers will mistakenly believe that the members of Defendant are one and the same with — or at least somehow connected to — Plaintiff,” the lawsuit says.

Outkast’s legal complaint, which requests a jury trial to stop the EDM group from using the ATLiens name, lists 10 counts for the court to consider. Multiple counts refer to the Lanham Act, which protects trademarks on the basis of “distinctiveness.” Outkast alleges unfair competition, the dilution of their trademark, trademark infringement under Georgia common law, and deceptive trade practices, among other counts. They want an injunction on the Atlanta duo and for the EDM act to pay their attorneys’ fees.

“This is a basic brand protection issue,” Abigail J. Remore and Peter Nussbaum, lawyers for CSG Law, which represent Outkast, tells Rolling Stone. “Efforts to resolve this matter amicably were unfortunately unsuccessful, and Outkast therefore had to file suit in order to protect the valuable name and trademark ATLiens that it created and has continuously used for nearly 30 years.”

A rep for the ATLiens duo did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment.

The lawsuit’s “prayers for relief” (Outkast’s desired outcome) is for the defendants to stop using ATLiens or anything associated with it that could confuse people. They also want money, asking the EDM group “to account for and pay to Plaintiff all gains, profits, and advantages derived by it from the unlawful activities alleged herein,” in addition to separate damages. And they want everything bearing the EDM group’s ATLiens mark to be destroyed and for them to stop using the name online.

Outkast’s ATLiens came out 28 years ago this month and reached Number Two on Billboard’s albums chart. It has since been certified double platinum, thanks to hits like “Elevators (Me & You),” “ATLiens” (of course), and “Jazzy Belle.” Rolling Stone praised the album upon its release in a four-out-of-five–star review. “What distinguishes this record from the materialistic hedonism of much East Coast rap, and the gunplay and pimpism of its West Coast counterpart, is more than OutKast’s Southern roots,” the magazine said. “On ATLiens … Andre [3000] and Big Boi display a unique ability to describe ghetto life while offering up life-affirming possibilities, something all too rare in today’s hip-hop nation.”