Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo have entered a legal battle against each other over trademarking the “Neptunes” brand.
According to legal documents obtained by HipHopDX, Hugo and his team have made a filing with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, accusing his longtime friend and co-producer of committing fraud by attempting to register trademarks for the Neptunes name without his name on it.
“Throughout their over thirty year history, [Hugo] and Williams agreed to, and in fact, have divided all assets,” the documents read. “By ignoring and excluding [Hugo] from the any and all applications filed by applicant for the mark ‘The Neptunes,’ applicant has committed fraud in securing the trademarks and acted in bad faith.”
A representative for the “Happy” hitmaker made a statement to Billboard on Monday (April 1), saying: “Pharrell is surprised by this. We have reached out on multiple occasions to share in the ownership and administration of the trademark and will continue to make that offer. The goal here was to make sure a third party doesn’t get a hold of the trademark and to guarantee Chad and Pharrell share in ownership and administration.”
Hugo’s lawyer, on the other hand, felt that was a lie.
“If Pharell’s intent was to include Chad in the filing, he should have registered it in the name of their jointly owned company Neptunes, LLC and not in his own name,” he said. “This was a land grab in a long simmering dispute that has yet to be resolved.”
There are currently three separate applications over the name that Hugo is disputing: one for streaming music, the second for music videos and other content, and a third covering live performances. According to the legal paperwork, Pharrell filed for ownership in 2022 under his PW IP Holdings LLC.
Elsewhere in the case, Hugo’s attorneys said they’ve “repeatedly” contacted Pharrell’s team about the problem. They also noted that the Louis Vuitton designer’s company has insisted on “onerous business terms” that would deprive Hugo of proper control and compensation without specifying the exact terms.
Chad Hugo’s team is proposing that the three aforementioned trademarks be amended to make him 50% co-owner or to name the General Partnership as owner in place of Pharrell.
