Copyright - The name of a band

[kristiking]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida
Hi, I am in a band, we have been together for a little over a year. We have entered talent shows and have been offered gigs which we have done.

Today however a friend while searching for our band on the internet found another group/band with the same name dating back to 2003. We did not know about this, and we are two totally different genres. Ours is rock/heavy rock theirs is ambient/techno.

I have searched the US copyright website for the name of the band and there is nothing registered, there was also no ip registered at wipo.net (world intellectual property organization)

So my questions are these, would be be liable for copyright infringement for having the same band name as another group that has released albums/track sets before.

Since they don't seem to be a registered group can we register our name even though it has the same name as another group.

As our genres are totally different would that help us, also all of our music is written by us and not owned by any other group.

What would be the best and easiest way to go in getting our band registered.

 

[FlyingRon]

You can't "copyright" a name.
You might have trademark issues however. The registered trademark database is at uspto.gov. However, registration is not required to have trademark rights.

You might be liable for trademark infringement, but if both of you are obscure neither one of you may have preferential rights to the name over the other.

You can register the trademark, but "band names" aren't on any official registry.