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Paul Kantner sued for using 'Starship' name

Posted by LWR (A) on March 23, 2007 at 08:19:26

SAN FRANCISCO
Paul Kantner sued for using 'Starship' name
Band's ex-manager says trademark is being infringed on

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, March 23, 2007

The jousting Jeffersons, more noted for litigation than music since the glory days of the Airplane and Starship, are back in court with a suit by their former manager, joined by vocalist Grace Slick, accusing guitarist Paul Kantner of illegally exploiting the Starship name in concerts and promotional contracts.

The suit, filed Tuesday in federal court in San Francisco, says Kantner -- who has been touring for more than 15 years under variations of the Jefferson Starship name -- is violating trademark rights and an $80,000 legal settlement he signed in 1985, a year after he left the band.

In exchange for the money, Kantner promised never to perform as Jefferson Starship and never to use the names "Jefferson'' or "Airplane'' without consent from Slick, the majority shareholder in Jefferson Starship Inc., the suit said.

Kantner's current band, which sometimes includes Airplane vocalist and co-founder Marty Balin, is one of the many incarnations of the Jefferson Airplane, the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame band that pioneered the "San Francisco sound'' in the mid-1960s with hits that included "Somebody to Love'' and "White Rabbit.''

After the band was grounded by feuds and a lawsuit, Kantner and Slick formed the Jefferson Starship in 1974, taking the name from a Kantner solo album. Slick stayed on after Kantner left, and had a few more hits, including "We Built This City,'' before the band folded in the late 1980s.

Kantner started performing in 1991 as Paul Kantner's Starship, while Mickey Thomas, another ex-Starship vocalist, has been touring under the name of Mickey Thomas' Starship. Kantner and Balin's use of the Airplane name in a 2000 concert tour brought another lawsuit and an injunction. Two other original Jefferson Airplane members, Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady, still perform as Hot Tuna.

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