Can a music band use a name like “Eagles of Death Metal” without permission of “The Eagles” band? Could The Eagles win in court?
How about “Beatles of Baltimore”, “Led Zeppelin of Straight Dope” or “Rolling Stones of Hatred”?
How close a name can one get away with?
The band has been around for years. I have their CD Love, Sex and Death Metal. To my knowledge The Eagles, litigious though they are, have not raised any issues.
I would think, in as much as an eagle is a type of bird, that the Eagles don’t have any say over whether another band can use the word eagle. I think it would only be a problem if they copied or came close to copying their logo.
While it’s true that the Eagles don’t own the word, the band name (Eagles of Death Metal) is an explicit reference to “The Eagles” the band and not just a bird. And a not too flattering reference too. Who knew that Don Henley had a sense of humor?
This is a trademark issue. Roughly speaking, the question is whether there’s a reasonable possibility of confusion. If you name a band “Beatles of Baltimore”, then there might be a chance that a concert-goer might believe that your band is in some way licensed by John, Paul, George, and Ringo, and is their official representative in Baltimore (just how much of a chance would of course be argued by the lawyers). The distinctive spelling of “Beatles” would probably reinforce that, as that spelling isn’t used for anything but the band. “Eagles of Death Metal”, however, probably doesn’t pose as much possibility of confusion, both because “eagles” is a word in general use, and because the band that goes by the name “The Eagles” doesn’t play death metal.
Well, the Eagles of Death Metal don’t play death metal, either. They are an alternative band, which is kind of the joke. If you take death metal and wussify and commercialize it, you end up with alternative, roughly.
The Beat are known as the English Beat in America and the British Beat in Australia, because a band called the Beat already existed. (Who were they? I can’t figure out how to Google them.) Beat is a generic word, and not even the existence of the Beatles could stop others from using it. The Beetles exist as a group of Muppets, the Beetles Americanos put out an album, Meet the Beetles are a tribute band. The Byrds were the Birds and changed because of The Birds. Dread Zeppelin and Red Zeppelin got some fame.
You can get as close as you dare, as long as it’s clear you aren’t passing yourselves off as the originals.
Exapno Mapcase would make a great name for a band, thinking of it.
They’re AKA Paul Collins’ Beat…apparently they toured with the English Beat a while back. They’re not bad, although I like the English Beat better.
(Search terms used “Beat American band”.)
That played harps?
The group in the OP is, technically, called Eagles of Death Metal. If they called themselves The Eagles of Death Metal, could Henley, et al, have a more serious issue?
And bulb horn.
Yes, bands having the same keyword is no problem. If they were named Eagles, then that would be an issue. The Eagles do not own the word EAGLESis all use.
Take The Verve and Verve Pipe, different band names despite one similar word. For examples John Deacon, Brian May and Roger Taylor can not sue Queens of the Stone Age for the use of Queen.
Pretty funny, since Josh Homme founded both Queens of the Stone Age and Eagles of Death Metal. What will his next band be? Beatles of the Pink Floyd Rolling Stones?
That’s right, The Mascara Whitesnake.
There’s also the Charlatans UK, Wrathchild America, and X Japan.
On the other hand, both Nirvana and Audioslave paid off British bands with identical names to keep using their name.
Green Jellö and Chicago Transit Authority were forced to change their names due to trademark lawsuits. However, I couldn’t think of any band sued by another band over their name, unless the name was an exact match – the closest I could find was ex-Yardbirds Jimmy Page planning to call his new band The New Yardbirds, and his former bandmates threatened to sue him if he went with that name. Then one of them mentioned that he expected Jimmy’s new band to go over like a lead balloon, and…well, you know the rest. 
Presented for your consideration: Pink Beetles in a Purple Zeppelin.
He can name it whatever he wants, I’ll be listening.
Really roughly. You might say if you took alternative and removed the music it would be death metal. If the alternative music you listen to is commercial and wussified, maybe you got into it too late, like after it wasn’t the alternative anymore?
IIRC Frey insists that the actual name of their band is “Eagles”
There was also Gypsy and English Gypsy. The latter were just known as Gypsy in the UK, but added “English” in the US.
