In February, an online clothing seller in Indonesia received an email from lawyers representing Led Zeppelin in which they warned that the band could receive up to $2 million in damages because the seller had allegedly been selling bootleg Led Zeppelin T-shirts.
Panicked and unable to pay significant damages, the seller turned to the website JustAnswer in search of free assistance from a lawyer who could help them avoid the wrath of Led Zeppelin.
“I only sell like other seller,” the unnamed recipient of the legal threat wrote in a March 1 message to a lawyer through the JustAnswer website. “I sell tshirt with image from band … I only got one sale for that item.”
Despite claiming to have only sold a single bootleg Led Zeppelin T-shirt, the panicked seller now realised they were one of the defendants in a lawsuit Led Zeppelin filed in Illinois last January as part of the group’s regular crackdowns on unauthorised merchandise.
LedZepNews has documented for years how Led Zeppelin uses trademark filings and specialist law firms to protect the band’s brand around the world and to stamp out bootleg merchandise sales. The band’s lawyers have taken legal action in the US, the UK, China and South Korea as they attempt to take down unauthorised items.
In December 2024, LedZepNews reported that the band’s lawyers were probing a US trademark registration for the brand name “Zeppelin Studio Latin America” filed by a film production business. The band eventually declined to object to the application.
Also in 2024, Led Zeppelin’s lawyers sought multiple extensions to investigate an application to trademark the business name “Lead Zeppelin” in the US from a sales business. The company eventually abandoned its trademark application.
