Lady Antebellum, now known as Lady A, announced Wednesday the band was filing a lawsuit against another woman going by Lady A.
The band filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, according to a report published by Billboard. The filing claimed Anita White, who goes by Lady A, attempted to “enforce purported trademarks rights in a mark that Plaintiffs have held for more than a decade.” White is reportedly asking the band for $10 million.
Lady Antebellum applied to register Lady A in 2010 and after the band received no opposition for a year, the name was officially registered in 2011, the outlet reported.
“Today we are sad to share that our sincere hope to join together with Anita White in unity and common purpose has ended,” a statement from the band said. “She and her team have demanded a $10 million payment, so reluctantly we have come to the conclusion that we need to ask a court to affirm our right to continue to use the name Lady A, a trademark we have held for many years. It was a stirring in our hearts and reflection on our own blindspots that led us to announce a few weeks ago that we were dropping the word ‘Antebellum’ from our name and moving forward using only the name so many of our fans already knew us by.” (RELATED: Lady Antebellum Slammed After Changing Name To Lady A In Response To ‘Black Lives Matter’: ‘Pure Privilege’)
“When we learned that Ms. White had also been performing under the name Lady A, we had heartfelt discussions with her about how we can all come together and make something special and beautiful out of this moment,” the statement continued. “We never even entertained the idea that she shouldn’t also be able to use the name Lady A, and never will – today’s action doesn’t change that. Instead, we shared our stories, listened to each other, prayed and spent hours on the phone and text writing a song about this experience together. We felt we had been brought together for a reason and saw this as living out the calling that brought us to make this change in the first place.”
“We hope Anita and the advisers she is now listening to will change their minds about their approach. We can do so much more together than in this dispute,” the statement added.