Lady A Settles Lawsuit Over Name Dispute with Anita White, Who Performed Under Same Name

Lady A has settled their lawsuit with Anita White.

Issues between the two musical groups first arose in June 2020, when the country group formerly known as Lady Antebellum announced that they would be rebranding themselves, as the word antebellum had ties to “the period of history before the Civil War, which includes slavery.”

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After changing their name, singer Anita White came forward as she had been performing under the name “Lady A” for decades.

While discussions between the two groups seemed positive at first, the “Need You Now” performers sued the Seattle blues singer, saying in the filing that that had been using the name independently for years. They also applied for a trademark to use Lady A for entertainment purposes at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2010.

Anita countersued in 2020, filing a trademark infringement lawsuit and arguing that she had common law rights to the name since she’d be using it for years.

On Thursday (January 3), both parties filed to dismiss their dueling lawsuits in Nashville. They also reached an agreement about the use of the name, but the terms were not made public in the documents published by Billboard.

A representative for Anita told People, “Anita White aka Lady A is an amazing individual and artist. It has been an honor for Cooley to represent Anita pro bono. Cooley appreciates how important it is for women and people of color to tell their own stories. This is Anita‘s story to tell.”

Find out what the band Lady A had to say about changing their name…