The surviving members of the legendary rock band The Eagles, are suing a Mexican hotel that calls itself Hotel California, which is also the title of what is likely the band’s most famous song.
The suit was filed Monday against the 11-room hotel in Baja California Sur, saying the hotel owners “actively encourage” the notion that the hotel is somehow associated with the band.
Allegedly one way the owners do this was through playing the song and other Eagles hits over the hotel’s sound system. The hotel also sold merchandise such as T-shirts calling itself “legendary.”
The suit, which was filed in Los Angeles, also claimed the hotel owners tried to register the Hotel California name with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
“Defendants lead U.S. consumers to believe that the Todos Santos Hotel is associated with the Eagles and, among other things, served as the inspiration for the lyrics in Hotel California, which is false,” according to the complaint.
The hotel opened in 1950 and was called Hotel California, but had gone by the name Todos Santos until it was purchased by a Canadian couple in 2001 who changed the name back to Hotel California.
Hotel California appeared on the 1976 album of the same name and took home a Grammy for album of the year.
The song, which is known for winding guitars and oblique lyrics, was written by Don Felder, Glenn Frey and Don Henley. Frey died in 2016 at age 67.
According to Henley, the song is about “a journey from innocence to experience. It’s not really about California; it’s about America,” he said in an interview with CBS News last year.
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