Unfortunately, this is not an April Fools joke.
Billboard reports that in a legal action filed last week, Chad Hugo’s attorneys accuse Pharrell and his company of trying to get sole control of the Neptunes name and filing a trademark that violates their agreement that things are split equally.
Kenneth D. Freundlich, a prominent music industry litigator and Hugo’s attorney, said “throughout their over thirty year history, [Hugo] and Williams agreed to, and in fact, have divided all assets. 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 rep for Pharrell says there was indeed no ill intent in the attempt to file the trademark and that his team had reached out to Chad to share ownership and administration of the trademark. Freundlich disputes this, saying Pharrell should have filed it in his and Chad’s jointly owned company.
Hopefully this gets resolved smoothly and soon.
