Is Korn Bringing Back The Family Values Tour? Recent Trademark Applications Provide Hints

The metal band Korn created The Family Values Tour back in 1998 with the hopes of starting an annual rock and hip hop tour. In its heyday, the Tour included the likes of Limp Bizkit, Ice Cube, Stone Temple Pilots, Linkin Park, Method Man and Redman, DMX, and Evanescence. The Tour, however, has not seen any life since its one day festival in 2013. Until now.

On August 25th, an entity called Family Values Returns, LLC filed three federal trademark applications for THE FAMILY VALUES TOUR. The goods and services covered by these applications include:

• Class 041 - Entertainment services, namely, organizing touring festivals featuring heavy metal bands;
• Class 016 - posters, postcards and stickers;
• Class 025 - t-shirts, jackets and hats; and
• Class 009 - Musical sound recordings, namely prerecorded compact discs and audio tape cassettes featuring music; video recordings, namely prerecorded video tape cassettes and digital video discs featuring musical performances and entertainment.

Sounds a lot like a music tour to me. These applications were filed on an intent-to-use basis, meaning the mark is [probably] not being used in commerce yet, but the applicant has a bona fide intention to use it on the listed goods and services in the near future. TMEP 1101; 15 U.S.C. 1051(b).

The original THE FAMILY VALUES TOUR trademark registrations (now dead) were filed back in 1998 and 2003. Those registrations covered the exact same goods and services listed above and were owned by an entity called Family Values Tour, LLC.

While these new trademark applications do not guarantee THE FAMILY VALUES TOUR is coming back, the intent-to-use basis of the applications does suggest some sort of plans to bring the tour back are in the works.