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The Response

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Neal Schon has responded to a petition filed against him and Jonathan Cain by former singer Steve Perry to cancel trademark registrations for 20 songs he had a hand in writing.

Schon, who now manages the band, responded with a rambling message on Facebook in which he says, “What a bunch of total crap. Here’s how it goes, friends.

Jon Cain calls a board of directors meeting [in 2020] out of nowhere. Then, before I found out about the meeting, Jonathan came to me and said he didn’t like what they (now former bassist Ross Valory, now former drummer Steve Smith, Perry and former manager Herbie Herbert, who has since passed away) were planning.

“On that meeting, [they] voted myself and Cain off the board of directors, and Perry and all voted Ross in my place and Smith in Jon’s.

“They all knew at this time I’d been investigating our trademarks for years trying to get to the bottom of all corruption as we found (my wife and I) that nothing had ever been trademarked besides our music.

“They all went for a takeover and it didn’t work. Quite simple.

“So, my wife, Micheale Schon, found a legitimate trademark attorney that wasn’t in the corrupt musical circles and we were then successful in attaining him to protect everything we built. We had been getting ripped off since the beginning until I shut it down.

“So the question is, ‘Why did nobody else’s attorneys — Steve’s, who was actually ours at one time — and individual band attorneys and accountants and other so called trademark attorneys help us do this?

“It was a giant corrupted ring of people that either management or accountants hired to work for us cashing, in on all our merchandise until now.

“At this point, I decided to go for all album titles as well as song titles. We got educated on how songwriting and copyrights have NOTHING to do with trademarks.

“You haven’t heard the last of this, friends. We are going to peel back the onion.”

The board meeting in 2020 led Schon and Cain to fire Steve Smith and Ross Valory.

Perry’s petition claims Schon and Cain registered such songs as “Separate Ways,” “Open Arms,” “Anyway You Want It,” “Who’s Crying Now,” “When You Love a Woman” and others through Freedom JN LLC for use on hats, T-shirts, athletic jackets and other paraphernalia. He says this violates an earlier agreement that stipulates decisions like these must be made with “prior, written unanimous consent of all partners in each instance.”

He also claims they used “false or misleading information” in securing the trademarks.

REUTERS PHOTO

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