Client Spotlight: Juhn Hits 500 Million Streams for One Song

As you may already know, our firm files a lot of applications for music trademarks. One client of ours, Juhn, has managed to hit it big within the last couple of years. He wisely hired us in 2019 to file a trademark application for “Juhn” when his streaming numbers were in the single-digit millions.

As a fan of Latin trap and a resident of Loisaida in Manhattan at the time, I was very excited that the Puerto Rico-based artist had decided to work with JPG Legal to secure his name. Two years later, the reggaeton song “Bandido” that he co-wrote and performed with Myke Towers has over half a billion streams on Spotify alone.

Because he took action when he was 100 times less famous than he is now, he doesn’t have to worry about counterfeiters and artists with similar names filing trademark applications. He reached registration in late 2020 and now his name is secure. 

Sadly, many of the musicians who hire us only start thinking about trademark rights when one of three things happens:

1. An artist with a similar name has sent them a cease-and-desist letter or kicked them off of Spotify;
2. A copycat artist has started appearing on streaming services with a similar or identical name and our client wants to kick them off; or
3. The band has broken up and one of the members has reached out to us to make sure they can still perform and release music under the band’s name.

All three of the above situations are undesirable and in many cases, our clients simply acted too late and have missed the chance to protect their band/artist name.

Juhn’s prudence in securing his trademark rights early should be commended. Who knows what kind of headaches he might have been facing now as a charting artist with no trademark protection?

Once you get that big, people come out of the woodwork. Less famous artists with similar names rush to the USPTO to be the first to file, and scammers register your name with the hope of “selling” your own trademark back to you. Regardless of the strength of your case against these people, you have an uphill legal battle if you’re not the first one to file a trademark application.

Aside from Juhn, JPG Legal has worked for some other musicians of note. This includes up-and-coming pop producer/singer Cadmium, whose top song has about 30 million streams on Spotify, and The Weather Girls, whose 1980s hit “It’s Raining Men” has over 200 million streams.

We also handled a trademark re-filing for the name “Toots and the Maytals,” the band started by late legendary ska artist Toots Hibbert, who coined the word “reggae.” Now we’re handling some new filings for his family as his daughter Leba takes the reins of the Maytals and will start touring soon.