Dweezil Zappa: I Can’t Use My Own Name Legally

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Dweezil Zappa (Photo from his website)

Just days after Ahmet and Diva Zappa announced a forthcoming tour that will present their late father Frank Zappa as a hologram, their brother Dweezil Zappa has fired back with a lengthy diatribe condemning his siblings, who run the Zappa Family Trust.

At the heart of his complaint, Dweezil, a musician and bandleader who has long performed a show he calls Zappa Plays Zappa, claims that a Zappa Family Trust document states that “’Dweezil’ is a trademark belonging to the ZFT.”

Dweezil is the name under which the older Zappa, now 48, has performed since the beginning of his career. Although his birth name was Ian Donald Calvin Euclid Zappa, he has been called Dweezil since birth. He is the second child of Frank and the late Gail Zappa, following sister Moon, who is also excluded from the administration of the Zappa Family Trust.

In his post, which can be read in its entirety here, Dweezil writed, “That’s right the ZFT has actually has made a recent claim in pre-trial documents that they own my first name as well as my last name…The ZFT decided to send me a cease and desist letter in 2016, a real one, not a holographic one, over the use of the name Zappa Plays Zappa.”

Photo from Dweezil Zappa website

He then quotes from that April 2016 cease and desist letter:

“We hereby advise you that should your client proceed to perform under, or advertise or otherwise use, the name ”ZPZ” or “Zappa Plays Zappa” or to use the same in connection with any such performances, my client will pursue its rights to prevent such performances and usage as the exclusive owner of these trademarks. Further, your client cannot perform a show consisting largely of Frank Zappa’s works.

“Any public performance of Frank Zappa’s works as part of the ZPZ show using the music of Frank Zappa without a license from ZFT constitutes copyright infringement and will be prosecuted by ZFT. A willful infringement of copyright can result in damages of up to $150,000 per infringement plus attorneys’ fees and a possible injunction.”

Dweezil further states, “Rather than waste more money on lawyers to fight for my clear legal authority to use the name Dweezil Zappa Plays The Music Of Frank Zappa, I decided it would be more appropriate to change the name again…This time I squeezed the lemons into lemonade and called the tour, Dweezil Zappa Plays Whatever The F@% He Wants: The Cease And Desist Tour.’ I haven’t received a cease and desist letter for that name yet!”

He then details the current legal status of the dispute and addresses the hologram concert: “Apparently ‘owning’ my name isn’t enough for them and they have tried to leverage their roles as trustees by creating a holographic version of our father that they seek to manipulate on stages worldwide.

“The press release about the tour appears to state that they have communicated with me about being involved with such a tour. Like other fans of my father, I heard about it through social media.

“I have never been contacted by the (ZFT) about it in any form nor have I given them consent to use my name. For the record, I am not interested in participating in anything with an artificial version of my Father on stage.

“Let’s be realistic, it’s not actually Frank Zappa that will be on stage.

“It’s important to note that the process of creating holograms of deceased individuals (crazy that this is a thing nowadays) does not involve the physical attributes of said individuals.”

Listen to Dweezil Zappa’s version of “My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mamma”