Metallica Win Merchandise Trademark Battle in Chile

Metallica will be able to sell their own merchandise in Chile after more than a decade of being barred from doing so, having recently won a protracted trademark battle in the country.

Chilean businessman Horacio Mardones had registered a logo identical to Metallica’s for use on clothing and footwear in the country, gaining him the exclusive right to sell Metallica-branded merchandise there. Metallica attempted to fight Mardones’s registration of the brand in 2012 and lost the case, but the Chilean Supreme Court has now annulled that decision after attorneys for Metallica made a persuasive argument. Other brands based in the United States have often had issues with the trademark system in Chile.

Metallica’s attorney, Ricardo Montero of the firm Silva y Cia, said, “We were able to show that the Metallica brand is well-known abroad and that Mr. Mardones was using the brand in bad faith.”

The decision comes just in time for Metallica’s fifth-ever show in Chile, scheduled to take place in April, 2020. The band’s upcoming tour of Australia and New Zealand was recently postponed when James Hetfield check himself into rehab, but as of right now the South American tour is scheduled to go on as planned.

Get tickets for Metallica’s upcoming tour dates right here.

[Bloomberg Law via Loudwire]