Former Journey frontman Steve Perry has withdrawn the lawsuit against his ex-bmates over the trademarks to 20 of the group’s biggest songs.
In September of last year, Perry – who exited Journey in 1998 after serving as its lead singer for a decade – filed a lawsuit against Freedom JN LLC. The filing requested that the company, which holds the band’s trademarks and is headed by Journey members Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain, be prevented from using the trademarks on any official apparel or merchandise.
Included in the company’s holdings were the trademarks to the Journey singles ‘Any Way You Want It’, ‘Open Arms’ and ‘Separate Ways’There are many more. Perry’s original lawsuit claimed that he, Schon and Cain had agreed to reach unanimous consent on any business decisions related to the trademarks, a condition which Perry claimed was not met at the time of filing.
Schon now uses Twitter to share screenshots of Perry’s cancellation filing from Saturday (7/17) “No more lawsuit with Steve,” Schon wrote in the caption. “Time to talk”. Perry is described in the attached documents. “filed a withdrawal” He was not able to relaunch his suit after it was closed on January 4, 2023. “denied with prejudice”.
Steve, no more lawsuit✌🏽 pic.twitter.com/JuLaMZxY0b
— NEAL SCHON MUSIC (@NealSchonMusic) January 7, 2023
In another tweet, Schon also made reference to Cain, with whom he is in a separate legal battle around access to Journey’s credit card and its records.
That lawsuit was filed by Schon in October of last year, and accuses Cain of refusing to give Schon access to the group’s American Express card. Cain refuted the accusations, stating that the “lawsuit… has absolutely no merit” That and more “Neal has always had access to the credit card statements” (per Variety).
Meanwhile, in December of 2022, Schon sent Cain a cease-and-desist to prohibit him from playing Journey’s songs at the Mar-a-Lago hotel owned by Donald Trump. That lawsuit came a month after Cain performed the band’s 1981 track ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ at the former president’s estate, a set which Schon’s cease-and-desist claimed was a “harmful use” of Journey’s brand.
JC was trying to throw me under a bus by claiming that I was blatantly attempting to rip off SP, while collecting the checks for all the hard work my wife (and I) did to preserve our Merch. It’s time for some coffee👍🏽 pic.twitter.com/xsGQBr0wob
— NEAL SCHON MUSIC (@NealSchonMusic) January 7, 2023
Referencing Cain in his announcement of Perry’s dropped lawsuit, Schon wrote: “So much for [Cain] trying to throw me under the bus as he claimed I was blatantly trying to rip off [Perry] while collecting the checks for the very diligent work my wife and I did to protect our Merch.”
Journey will embark on the Freedom Tour in spite of the fight between their long-time bandmates towards the end this month. The tour – which will see Cain and Schon share the stage with original Journey vocalist Gregg Rolie for the first time in 43 years – kicks off on January 27 in Oklahoma.
