Former Journey member Steve Perry drops trademark lawsuit against ex-bandmates

9 January, 2023

Former Journey frontman Steve Perry has withdrawn the lawsuit against his ex-bandmates over the trademarks to 20 of the group’s biggest songs.

In September of last year, Perry – who exited Journey in 1998 after serving as its lead singer for a decade – filed a lawsuit against Freedom JN LLC. The filing requested that the company, which holds the band’s trademarks and is headed by Journey members Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain, be prevented from using the trademarks on any official apparel or merchandise.

Included in the company’s holdings were the trademarks to the Journey singles ‘Any Way You Want It’, ‘Open Arms’ and ‘Separate Ways’, among many others. Perry’s original lawsuit claimed that he, Schon and Cain had agreed to reach unanimous consent on any business decisions related to the trademarks, a condition which Perry claimed was not met at the time of filing.

Now, Schon has taken to Twitter to reveal that Perry has withdrawn the 2022 lawsuit, sharing screenshots of the cancellation filing on Saturday (January 7). “No more lawsuit with Steve,” Schon wrote in the accompanying caption. “Time to talk”. The attached documents outline that Perry “filed a withdrawal” of the lawsuit on January 4, 2023, and that he cannot relaunch the suit since it was “denied with prejudice”.

In another tweet, Schon also made reference to Cain, with whom he is in a separate legal battle around access to Journey’s credit card and its records.

That lawsuit was filed by Schon in October of last year, and accuses Cain of refusing to give Schon access to the group’s American Express card. Cain denied the accusation, saying the “lawsuit… has absolutely no merit” and that “Neal has always had access to the credit card statements” (per Variety). 

Meanwhile, in December of 2022, Schon sent Cain a cease-and-desist to prohibit him from playing Journey’s songs at the Mar-a-Lago hotel owned by Donald Trump. That lawsuit came a month after Cain performed the band’s 1981 track ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ at the former president’s estate, a set which Schon’s cease-and-desist claimed was a “harmful use” of Journey’s brand.

Referencing Cain in his announcement of Perry’s dropped lawsuit, Schon wrote: “So much for [Cain] trying to throw me under the bus as he claimed I was blatantly trying to rip off [Perry] while collecting the checks for the very diligent work my wife and I did to protect our Merch.”

Despite the in-fighting between the longtime bandmates, Journey are set to embark on their Freedom Tour towards the end of this month. The tour – which will see Cain and Schon share the stage with original Journey vocalist Gregg Rolie for the first time in 43 years – kicks off on January 27 in Oklahoma.

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