Robert Plant may be planning to release music and merchandise with his latest band Saving Grace, according to trademark filings reviewed by LedZepNews.

Last year, a British business owned by Plant secured trademarks for “Saving Grace” across Europe and the US in order to block anyone else from using that band name to release music or merchandise.

Plant has never taken out trademarks for his solo projects before, making this an unusual step that could indicate longterm interest in the Saving Grace project, even as he’s shifted his focus in recent weeks to promoting his second album with Alison Krauss.

Plant owns the trademark for ‘Saving Grace’

On January 23, 2020, lawyers representing a London company named Trolcharm Limited filed applications in Europe and the US to trademark “Saving Grace”.

Plant owns more than 75% of Trolcharm Limited, according to Companies House filings in the UK. His three surviving children are directors of the business along with Plant.

The business owns the copyright to much of Plant’s solo career and is frequently credited in the liner notes of his albums.

The trademark applications, which were all eventually approved, include the following fields:

• Audio and video recordings including digital downloads and CDs
• Live music footage
• Posters, stickers and magazines
• Bags, wallets, umbrellas and luggage
• Clothing including footwear and headgear

Taking out trademarks for his musical projects is a rarity for Plant. He hasn’t applied to trademark the names of his previous solo bands Strange Sensation, the Band of Joy or the Sensational Space Shifters.

Plant hasn’t trademarked his own name, either, unlike Jimmy Page who does own trademarks to protect his personal brand including his name, his autograph and the word “ZOSO.”

The Saving Grace filings are the only trademark applications ever filed by Trolcharm Limited or any other business used by Plant to run his solo career.

Saving Grace has been active since 2019

So what could these trademark filings mean? It’s possible that Plant sees Saving Grace as his next major solo project, in the same way that he performed with members of Strange Sensation from 2001 to 2019.

Saving Grace was formed in 2019 when Plant teamed up with singer Suzi Dian in January of that year. The band had their debut performance on January 25, 2019 in Shropshire.

Since then, Plant has performed a number of shows with the band across the UK. They were forced to cancel a US tour due to the pandemic and scrapped the first half of a planned UK tour earlier this year.

The band has not released any music officially other than two black and white live performance clips it published to YouTube in 2020 on a channel named “nobody knows,” seemingly a quote from the band’s tagline used in its promotional material: “Nobody knows what it’s like.”

Robert Plant’s focus is now on working with Alison Krauss

Plant may have had big plans for Saving Grace back in 2020 when his business filed the trademark applications, but it’s unclear if he’ll return to working with the band.

Currently, Plant is promoting his upcoming second album with Krauss, “Raise the Roof,” which will be released on November 19. The pair then plan to perform together in 2022, although no tour dates have been released so far.

Plant has upcoming commitments in the US in 2021 and 2022, according to a Facebook post from a venue that had planned to host a cancelled Saving Grace show earlier this year. It’s unclear which project those commitments relate to.

Plant’s website has in the past hinted that he will release an already-recorded second album with the Band of Joy but it’s unclear whether that will go ahead.

Last year, Plant’s website said that the song “Charlie Patton Highway (Turn It Up – Part 1)” from the “Digging Deep: Subterranea” compilation was the first track to emerge “from the soon to be released album Band of Joy Volume 2.”

Days later, Plant discussed the song in a BBC radio interview, saying “it’s just the three of us. There’s Buddy, Marco Giovino on drums and myself and it’s one of about 13 pieces from that session that is hidden away in my cupboard.”

But when the topic of a second Band of Joy album came up in Plant’s recent interview with Mojo Magazine, Mojo reported that he “winces at the notion of reconvening to complete it.”

Trademark filings don’t always indicate concrete plans

The presence of trademark filings don’t always mean that the trademark holder will actually launch the product or service they have the trademarks for.

For example, we reported in 2018 that Led Zeppelin had gained the trademark for “The Led Zeppelin Experience” which covers the use of that name for a live show streaming service that could be used to allow fans to hear live recordings of shows from the seventies.

The band even asked Jason Bonham, the son of John Bonham, to change the name of his band from Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience to Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening to avoid confusion with the planned service.

But three years on, no such streaming service has launched and there haven’t been any further signs that it’s in the works.

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