Dan Snaith is not from Manitoba. Nevertheless, the Dundas, Ont., native named his recording alter ego after the prairie province to convey Canadiana. But the electronic musician was trumped by an aging punk rocker, and former wrestler, who took the stage name Handsome Dick Manitoba three decades ago as front man for the seminal but largely forgotten band The Dictators.
After Snaith's 2001 debut became a minor success in electronic music circles, Handsome Dick sent an unofficial cease-and-desist email. Thinking the request "ludicrous," Snaith forgot about it until the laptop pop of last year's Up in Flames won Manitoba international acclaim and he received a more threatening legal missive.
"We were on tour and about to do a gig in L.A. when someone from the club said 'There's somebody who knows your brother at the door,' " Snaith recounts from London, where he's earning a PhD in mathematics. "I don't have a brother but I went to the door anyway and this guy was like, 'Sorry, I'm here to subpoena you.' " Snaith is by no means the first artist to run afoul of trademark infringement.
Electro-pop group The Postal Service received a similar cease-and-desist demand from, yep, the U.S. Postal Service.
Initially a side-project for Dntel producer Jimmy Tamborello and Death Cab for Cutie singer Ben Gibbard, the duo's unexpectedly popular debut Give Up is number two on Billboard's electronic chart after 79 weeks and is Sub Pop's second-biggest hit after Nirvana's Bleach.
"We made the whole thing through the mail so it was an obvious name," says Tamborello, who lives in Los Angeles and would exchange tapes with his Seattle-based recording partner. "I've, uh, never figured out how to send MP3s."
The pair was loath to give up their name, though they couldn't afford to fight for it in court. So they met with U.S. Postal Service reps and worked a deal that included the proviso that they perform at next month's USPS annual convention in Washington.
"There was even talk of us being in their Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade float, but I don't think that's happening. . . . Now they're talking about selling the CD on their website, which is almost as weird."
Most similarly affected artists fall somewhere between these two extremes. Toronto's hipster bass-and-drums duo Death from Above recently joined such suffixed stalwarts as Bush X, blink-182 and Charlatans UK when they added "1979" to their name following legal threats from the New York production team/record label DFA.
But before the compromise was reached, the release of their debut full-length You're a Woman, I'm a Machine was pushed back and they temporarily renamed themselves First to Fight, angrily declaring on their website that DFA's James Murphy "will burn in the flames of a specially dedicated rock 'n' roll jihad."
"Trademark infringement is designed to protect artists who are out there actively using a trade name from having someone else come in and use that name and confuse the public," explains music lawyer Miro Oballa. "But this is where artists often get into trouble -- trademark law is all national, so you have to register in every single country, unlike copyright law. When bands are starting out they spend their money on equipment, not an exhaustive trademark search, but that sometimes results in situations like this."
When Snaith initially chose Manitoba, the bedroom producer took none of these precautions. Which is why he eventually abandoned his moniker, despite it being a province and the fact that Handsome Dick Manitoba had never released any music under that name (the closest being a 1990 group record as Manitoba's Wild Kingdom).
Since Snaith's nemesis continues to use Manitoba in the musical realm -- he's a host on Sirius satellite radio and The Dictators do play rare gigs -- lawyers recommended against going to court, which even if successful could have left Snaith bankrupt.
Handsome Dick declined an interview so his motivation remains a mystery, but there was no money to be gained from the lawsuit and he left no room for compromise, even rejecting Snaith's amusing suggestion of "Danitoba." (Handsome Dick does operate a popular bar in Manhattan's East Village called Manitoba's, which may play a part in his effort to protect his trademark.)
In the aftermath, Snaith selected the equally Canadian alias Caribou -- his back catalogue will be re-released and his third album is expected out next spring -- while The Dictators' website message boards have been hijacked by angry Manitoba fans decrying Dick's decidedly un-punk litigiousness.
Snaith is legally registering Caribou everywhere he can this time and though the name is shared by a popular coffee chain, Snaith says it's fine as long as "I never go into the coffee business and they don't start making CDs."
Hoping fans will find his music under the new name, Snaith just wants to put this "costly nightmare" behind him.
"I lost my mind over it for a while," he says. "But I'm doing this because I love making music and not because of the business side. That's a total cliché to say but at the end of the day, make me change my name, whatever, that's not changing my music."