High Schoolers LLC, a trademark holding company controlled by Outkast’s André 3000 and Big Boi, has filed a federal lawsuit against the Atlanta electronic dance music duo ATLiens.
In the lawsuit lawyers for the LLC claim that Outkast coined the term “ATLiens,” and that they’ve utilized it and owned the trademark for it since 1996. The EDM duo, the lawyers claim, has infringed on the Outkast trademark and been using the trademark without authorization.
“The word ATLiens was invented by OutKast,” according to the suit. “Before OutKast created it, it was not used in the cultural lexicon and did not exist. Defendant’s use of the ATLiens mark is likely to cause confusion, to cause mistake, or to deceive the public.”
The album’s titular track remains one of OutKast’s most popular songs, receiving over 186 million streams on Spotify. The record is “one of OutKast’s most well-known and well-regarded songs,” according to the lawsuit, which also rebukes ATLiens’ repeated performances of the song during their DJ sets.
André 3000 and Big Boi have also taken aim at ATLiens’ signature masks, which the lawsuit claims leads to confusion surrounding the two groups’ identities. OutKast’s legal team reportedly attempted to “negotiate an amicable resolution to the dispute,” but ATLiens continued to use the name “in confusing ways.”
“The duo comprising defendant performs with masks on, thereby concealing their identities such that consumers will mistakenly believe that the members of Defendant are one and the same with—or at least somehow connected to—plaintiff,” per Outkast’s lawyers.