Luxury fashion house Chrome Hearts has voluntarily dropped its trademark infringement lawsuit against Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts.
Per Rolling Stone, the LA-based brand filed a notice of voluntary dismissal in court this week, walking away from the case before it ever made it to trial. The filing didn’t specify whether a settlement had been reached between the two parties or whether Chrome Hearts had simply called it off.
Chrome Hearts — the high-end clothing, jewellery and accessories brand that has been operating since the late ’80s — first sued Young and the band in September 2025, a few months after Young’s then-new group released their debut album, Talkin to the Trees. The complaint alleged the rocker had never been “granted a license” or “any form of permission to use intellectual property belonging to Chrome Hearts,” and argued that the shared name — paired with merch emblazoned with “Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts” — would “likely cause confusion” in the marketplace.
The original lawsuit also flagged that third-party apparel vendors had “apparently already mistakenly assumed there is a connection between NYTCH and Chrome Hearts, and are actively promoting that purported connection,” with screenshots of shirts mashing up Young’s image with Chrome Hearts-style logos included as exhibits.
Young branded the band in late 2024, decades after Chrome Hearts the brand had established itself in the fashion world. Despite the legal threat, Young and the Chrome Hearts kept gigging under the name throughout the dispute — though the singer-songwriter pulled the plug on his entire 2026 European tour back in February, telling fans, “this is not the time”
The lawsuit didn’t slow the band down on the recording front, either. They dropped live album As Time Explodes for Record Store Day 2026, and Young has confirmed he recently wrapped a second studio album with the group.
Love Music?
Get your daily dose of metal, rock, indie, pop, and everything else in between.
