The California band One Direction
One Direction, the California band who happens to share the same name as the recent British pop sensation boyband, is looking to sue the British bands creator Simon Cowell for copyright infringement. The American One Direction claims to have formed and copyrighted their group in 2009, one year before Cowell pieced together his own pop band.


The Daily Mail reports on the American One Direction’s chat with Radio 1's Newsbeat via Skype. In the talk, Sean O’Leary of the California based group said that the quintet is suing Cowell for $1 million in damages, and a share of the British group's profits, claiming trademark infringement.

O’Leary went on to say that his band received death threats from Directioners, the loyal fan following of the British music group.

“'He [Simon Cowell] is obviously a very smart man, but we are not intimidated,” said O’Leary. “'The law isn't a popularity contest. Our name has been infringed.”

“When I was small and tried to start things up my dad would always advise me you're at the bottom so there's only one direction to go,” said one of the American band members on how their group got their name. “And that was the attitude I needed for the band.”

“That name means much more to us. It's everything.”

O’Leary added that, of course, they know their group is nowhere as popular as British popband, but that the two are also very different. O’Leary’s One Direction does more rock music and plays their instruments.

Syco, Simon Cowell’s record label, said separately that they attempted to resolve the issue amicably.

Cowell formed his own One Direction during the 2010 season of the UK ‘X Factor.’ After failing as soloists in the musical competition show, Niall Horan,  Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson were plucked by Cowell to form One Direction. Though the band only came in third on the show, they recently shattered records when their album ‘Up All Night’ debuted at number one in the US, marking them as the first British group to ever do so.

Here’s the American One Direction’s interview:



And here is British One Direction’s latest video for ‘One Thing’: