COPYRIGHT GONE CRAZY. OKAY, CRAZIER.

Archie Comic Publications is looking to raise the stakes on copyright a step further - it's claiming ownership of a girl's name. That's right - apparently being named Veronica is an infringement of their intellectual property.

A pair of twins from Brisbane, Jess and Lisa Origliasso, are about to launch their pop career in the US. They're calling themselves The Veronicas and, yes, they did say they were inspired by the Veronica from The Archies. Yes, the cartoon band who had the hit with Sugar Sugar. But is that enough to make the owner of the Archies copyright growl. There's that idea schlepping around that The Archies are due for a comeback as (high Josie and The Pussycats concept time) a human band; and so the Archies people are claiming that a band travelling round calling themselves The Veronicas would, erm, confuse people. Now, although they might have borrowed the name from the Archies cartoon, it's not as if it's a name you only find in the cartoon - it's not "R2-D2" or "K9"; we even seem to recall that Madonna's confirmation name was Veronica, wasn't it?

However, we can happily put an end to this nonesense - however much Archie Comics might like to think they have the rights to the name Veronica as a musical act, they don't; as someone got there first. Almost a decade before The Archies started pushing up sugar consumption around the globe, Ronnie Spector has released two solo records under the credit Veronica. The comic book company might want to say the Australian twins don't have the right to use someone else's name for a singing act; fine, but then neither do they, surely?

music the archies veronicas