The Eagles vs. the Eagles
by Joal Ryan
February 19, 1998, 12:45 p.m. PT

The eagles (the birds) may have been here first, but the Eagles (the rockers) landed with more lawyers.

The recently enshrined Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band is suing a Tennessee-based eagle-preservation group, crying trademark infringement.

The musicians think the nonprofit National Foundation to Protect America's Eagles is showing some nerve by using the word "eagle" in its Website address (www.eagles.org) and toll-free telephone number. It also objects to music videos and CDs that the non-Eagles eagles group sells.

No comment Thursday from the band.

Al Cecere, the founder of the charity group, says he was "astounded and shocked" by the lawsuit.

"It's so obvious to anybody--even a child, I think--that the reason we use the word 'eagle' is because that's what we do...," Cecere says. "What other word can we use?"

Cecere says the public's not confusing his foundation with the rock band. The Website has never received email for, say, Glenn Frey; the phone line has never taken messages from fans looking for concert tickets.

This sad day in the animal kingdom--eagle vs. Eagle--is compounded by the fact that Don Henley used to be a friend of the National Foundation.

The drummer-cum-social activist, whose causes include the preservation of Walden Pond, David Thoreau's favorite place to think big thoughts, once adopted one of the group's beaked babies.

The record industry--particularly its Nashville wing--historically has been a big booster of the National Foundation. The group counts Garth Brooks, Clint Black and Reba McEntire among its supporters. (Late-night TV talk-show fixture, zoo guy Jack Hanna, is its honorary cochair.)

In 1995, Tanya Tucker, Deana Carter and Ricky Skaggs helped cut a "We Are the World"-esque benefit single, "Save the Eagle." (Sample choral lyric: "We gotta keep the dreams alive/Keep them flying highhhhhhhh.")

"Save the Eagle" is available on the foundation's American Eagle Records. The group sought a trademark on that label name in 1995. In 1996, Cecere says, a lawyer for the Eagles contested the moniker. The case is still tied up in trademark courts. In spite of that skirmish, Cecere says, the band never hinted at a lawsuit filing.

The National Foundation has been around since 1985; the Eagles since 1972. The Bald Eagle trumps them all--it was declared the U.S. National Emblem in 1782.

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