Liverpool's Cavern Club fighting Hard Rock Cafe for naming rights

Turns out the Hard Rock Cafe trademarked the name "Cavern Club" in the U.S. back in 1994 and is using it in Boston and Las Vegas -- much to the chagrin of the original Cavern in Liverpool.

Liverpool's Cavern -- a rebuilt version of the one where the Beatles held residency during the early 1960s -- would like to nail down exclusive rights to the name and is filing suit to do so.

Cavern Club director Dave Jones said: "It is absurd for a billiards room in Boston to be passed off as having anything whatsoever to do with the history and heritage of music’s most famous club in the world."

"The Boston Hard Rock is also selling merchandise not only with the words Cavern Club on it but also bearing an image of the fascia of the real Cavern Club in Liverpool and an image of Beatles boots."

"It’s an outrageous insinuated claim to an association with fame that has nothing whatsoever to do with them.'

....The Hard Rock corporation, which was bought by the Seminole Tribe of Native Americans in 2007 for $965m, is based in Orlando.

The Cavern Club has appealed to the tribe council chairman, Grammy-nominated musician James E Billie, whose stage name is Chief Jim Billie, and have offered him a gig on the stage where the Beatles performed if he intervenes.

Cavern Club director Bill Heckle said: "We are sure that as a musician Chief Jim Billie will see the history and the right to our claim.

"This trademark row began long before the Seminole Tribe took ownership of the Hard Rock, so we don’t consider it’s of their making."

He added: "If Chief Jim Billie instructs the Hard Rock to try to see it our way not only will right be done but we’ll put him and his band on at The Cavern Club as part of the deal."

The Hard Rock has registered the US rights to use the Cavern Club name for any room at its outlets in the US and Mexico. The principal outlet currently promoting a ‘Cavern Club’ on the premises is the Hard Rock café in Boston and the chain has another ‘Cavern Club’ in Las Vegas

The article also mentions that the current Cavern in Liverpool is co-owned by John Lennon's "sister." This would be his half-sister, Julia Baird.