The Courtesans in legal win over X Factor 'star'

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By ( Louder ) published

London band victorious in tribunal over name, which X Factor contestant said was hers

All-female doom rockers The Courtesans have won a legal battle over their name with an eccentric X Factor contestant.

The London four-piece say they were subjected to a tirade of online abuse from 51-year-old Ms Eileen Daly – who appeared on the early stages of this year’s ITV reality show with husband Ben Thirkettle under the name The Courtesans.

The duo didn’t make it though the later stages, but Ms Daly subsequently tried to claim rights to the name, which the four-piece act had trademarked in 2013.

A tribunal has ruled in the rock band’s favour. In a statement, they say: “Our manager Howard Toshman trademarked the name in August 2013 which was subsequently opposed by Ms Eileen Daly who claimed that she had been using the name since 1998.

“Since then we have been subject to a tirade of online abuse from Ms Daly. When we took the name, there was no other band called The Courtesans in existence. There was no social media, no Facebook, no YouTube, no Twitter, no website domain, no Wikipedia, nothing – nor had there ever been.

“All of Ms Daly’s ‘Courtesans’ videos went up on YouTube after the date that we registered for the trademark, all of her social media was created after we had established The Courtesans name on those platforms.”

In making her ruling, judge Ann Corbett says: “Ms Daly has made various claims but has not substantiated them, and much of her evidence is contradictory, unclear or unfocussed and subject to a certain degree of exaggeration.”

Ms Daly was also ordered to pay Howard Toshman £800 in costs.

The Courtesans released new single Genius in August.

Stef Lach

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.