Eagles Trademarks

The Eagles are an American rock band that has sold over 200 million albums. Included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the band’s music has been popular for more than half of a century. However, they did not begin protecting their brand with trademarks until the mid-1990s.

They were founded in 1971, in Los Angeles, California by Glen Frey and Don Henley, who would add Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner to the mix. The crew had met and played in various formations as famed singer Linda Ronstadt’s band. They branched out on their own on the Asylum Records label under the name Eagles. The name itself has several origin stories, but all are connected to a trip the band members took to the Mojave Desert where they experimented with peyote.

The band’s self-titled debut album was released on June 1,1972 and contained the top 40 hits “Take It Easy,” “Witchy Woman” and “Peaceful Easy Feeling.” Released in 1973, Desperado was the second album from the Eagles. Popular songs from this album included “Tequila Sunrise” and “Desperado.” During the writing of this album, Frey and Henley collaborated on several songs and became more influential in the direction of the band than Leadon and Meisner.

The third album from the Eagles was On the Border in 1974, which is well noted for leaning more towards the hard rock genre. This meant a change in producers from Glyn Johns to Bill Szymczyk and the addition of Don Felder to play slide guitar on two songs. “Already Gone” and their first number one hit, “Best of My Love,” were notable singles from this album. This was followed up by the 1975 album One of These Nights, which would help propel the Eagles to great fame. The title single topped the charts, followed by “Lyin Eyes”, which made it to number two on the charts. “Take It to the Limit,” sung by Meisner also made it to number four. At the end of 1975, after this album, Bernie Leadon left the Eagles because he was unhappy with the amount of creative control that he had within the group.

Joe Walsh joined the group as a vocalist and guitarist in 1976. The group released Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975), which was a top selling album. In late 1976, they also released their fifth studio album, which was called Hotel California. “New Kid in Town,” “Hotel California” and  “Life in the Fast Lane” were the most popular tracks from the album at the time. “Hotel California” and “New Kid in Town” both won Grammy awards in 1978. Although Hotel California was nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammy’s that year, it did not win.

Randy Meisner left the Eagles in 1977 after a bitter argument with Frey that turned physical. He was replaced by Timothy B. Schmit and the Eagles recorded The Long Run, an album that took them more than two years to finish. Not as big of a critical success as Hotel California, the album was still a commercial blockbuster, selling more than seven million copies worldwide. It included the top ten hits: “Heartache Tonight”, “The Long Run”, and “I Can’t Tell You Why.”

Although they would more or less collaborate to finish one more album, Eagles Live, the band was split up after an argument during a show in Long Beach, California in 1980. The album was mostly a compilation and was pieced together by mail and attorneys simply to fulfill a contractual duty. Only one single even found the bottom of the charts, “Seven Bridges Road.”

Walsh, Henley, Frey, Schmidt and Meisner all had successful solo careers after and outside of their time performing with the Eagles.

The band reunited in 1994, after being prompted to work together on a project with country music star Travis Tritt. The reunion produced a tour and a live album, Hell Freezes Over. Several studio songs were included on the album, such as top 40 hits “Get Over It” and “Love Will Keep Us Alive.”

In February of 2001 Felder was fired from the group which sparked lawsuits. Felder’s lawsuit against the Eagles as well as Henley and Frey individually would eventually be dismissed in 2007. 2007 also saw the release of the Eagles final studio album to date, titled Long Road Out of Eden with the group now consisting of Frey, Henley, Walsh, and Schmit.

Glen Frey died in January of 2016, and his son Deacon takes his place in the band (along with Vince Gill) for Eagles performances now.

The Eagles did not trademark the name of their band for musical and entertainment purposes until around the time of their reunion in 1995. At that time “Eagles” was registered as trademark  for DVD and cassettes, entertainment services, posters, tour books, T-shirts and other clothing merchandise. The group also owns the trademark for their song title “Hotel California” which they acquired in 2018. The Eagles had been in a trademark dispute with a hotel in Mexico bearing the same name, which the band won in January of 2018.