It's been a hell of a week for Guns N' Roses, starting with one woman claiming she sustained some serious facial injuries thanks to Axl Rose tossing a mic into the crowd. Now the band is taking an online gun store to court over a trademark dispute.
In a story published by City News Service, Guns N' Roses is taking a site called Texas Guns And Roses (owned by Jersey Village Florist) to course in Los Angeles because they believe the store "selected and adopted defendant's marks for the purpose of confusing consumers into believing that it was connected or associated with, or licensed by, GNR."
The strangest part of the whole story is that Texas Guns And Roses does actually have a small section on their site that sells roses. Which makes sense given Jersey Village Florist is a florist based out of Houston, TX… but why the hell are they selling roses on their gun website, other than to justify using the name "Guns And Roses" in the title? That or to push the floral aspect, but I can't imagine someone's buying both a gun and roses at the same time.
Lawyer for Jersey Village Florist David L. Clark said the lawsuit doesn't make sense as there's never been any confusion between Guns N' Roses the band and Texas Guns And Roses, the website.
"There's never been any confusion (between the band and the website) and they have no evidence of confusion," he said. "This is an attempt to run up costs and burn us out. Our client sells metal safes for guns and flowers, and have a one-stop website and absolutely no one is confused. Nobody thinks we're the band or there is some affiliation. We will be fighting back."
Metal safes for flowers feels like a stretch, but I digress. Guns N' Roses claims they've been aware of the store since 2019, have sent cease and desist letters, and that the site's existence is damaging to the band's reputation.
"This is particularly damaging to GNR given the nature of defendant's business. GNR, quite reasonably, does not want to be associated with defendant, a firearms and weapons retailer. Furthermore, defendant espouses political views related to the regulation and control of firearms and weapons on the website that may be polarizing to many U.S. consumers."
Guns N' Roses is currently seeking an unspecified amount in damages and the cessation of the site using their current name.
