So, there is this song, by a moderately successful band.

Say I liked it so much that I actually named my company after the song title and trademarked the name (in the UK).

And say that at some point, I would like to actually use said song, probably as the backing track to a promotional video or use the first couple of bars as background music to the company logo displayed at the start of the game (like valve do with their logo when you load up half-life or whatever).

However, I would much rather never use the song than have the publishers / rights holders of the song sue me and force me to change my name.

Imagine also that the company is just me and has zero assets and zero activity until the first product is actually ready to be released

How should I approach the rights holders of the music, if at all?

How should I approach the rights holders of the music, if at all?

Telephone is best. Use a businesslike approach. State what you want to do, and ask what it would take to make it so. They will surely want more money than you can afford. But at least you will have more knowledge than you did before you called.

The song title belongs to the public domain and cannot be copyrighted - you can not be sued for using the title as your company name. If you wish to use an excerpt from the song for a promotional video I would recommend that you get in touch with PRS in the UK - who are the company responsible for collecting royalties for public performance of a copyrighted work.

The song title belongs to the public domain and cannot be copyrighted - you can not be sued for using the title as your company name[/quote]

This is what I heard from a number of places, but wasn't 100% sure

I will check out PRS and if that fails, will give the rights holders a direct call as Tom suggests.

Thanks for the help