Pharrell and Chad Hugo in court battle over the rights to using The Neptunes ... trends now

Pharrell Williams and longtime collaborator Chad Hugo are involved in a legal battle over the rights to the name of their musical tandem, The Neptunes.

Hugo, 50, said in court docs last week that Pharrell, 50, 'fraudulently' sought to gain total control of the band's name and trademarks, Billboard reported Monday.

Hugo's legal team said in docs filed at a federal tribunal that Pharrell sought to register trademarks for The Neptunes name without Hugo's involvement, in breach of a past professional pact they had made to divide everything down the middle.

'Throughout their over thirty year history, [Hugo] and Williams agreed to, and in fact, have divided all assets,' Hugo's lawyer Kenneth D. Freundlich said in legal docs reviewed by the outlet.

Freundlich said that 'by ignoring and excluding [Hugo] from the any and all applications filed by applicant for the mark "The Neptunes," applicant has committed fraud in securing the trademarks and acted in bad faith.'

Pharrell's rep told Billboard in a statement that the Happy artist was 'surprised by this' lawsuit, as he and his team 'have reached out on multiple occasions to share in the ownership and administration of the trademark and will continue to make that offer.

'The goal here was to make sure a third party doesn't get a hold of the trademark and to guarantee Chad and Pharrell share in ownership and administration.'

The paperwork Pharrell filed suggested otherwise, Freundlich told Billboard in a response statement.

'If Pharrell's intent was to include Chad in the filing, he should have registered it in the name of their jointly owned company Neptunes, LLC and not in his own name,' Freundlich said. 'This was a land grab in a long simmering dispute that has yet to be resolved.'

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