In May, Miley Cyrus promised three new EPs, but she hit some road blocks after releasing the first one. Three months later, she announced her divorce from longtime partner Liam Hemsworth and underwent vocal surgery last month. Now, it seems she’s setting her sights on a new endeavor: a project named Bandit and Bardot with Australian singer-songwriter and boyfriend Cody Simpson.
Earlier this month, Smiley Miley Inc., Cyrus’ company that registers and owns all of the singer’s trademarks, applied for the name Bandit and Bardot to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Rolling Stone has learned. The trademark application, filed on December 1st, includes “entertainment services, namely, live musical performances by a musical band; entertainment services, namely, live performances by professional singer, musician, and entertainer [and] entertainment, namely, live music concerts.”
In the same application, the singer applied for a trademark for “musical sound recordings; musical video recordings; pre-recorded CDs, DVDs, audio discs, video discs, and other recorded media featuring music; downloadable audio recordings and downloadable video recordings featuring music; downloadable multimedia files featuring music; Audio and video recordings featuring music, concerts, and entertainment; downloadable ring tones for mobile devices; software applications for mobile devices featuring music and entertainment [and] cases for phones and electronic devices.”
“If a client directs us to prepare and file a trademark application for the name of a band, this is exactly the type of language we would use in the application,” trademark attorney Josh Gerben of Gerben Law Firm tells Rolling Stone. “The language used in Miley’s trademark application strongly suggests that she is intending to use Bandit and Bardot as the name of a band.”
It’s of course possible that Cyrus opts to not pursue all of the possible uses of the trademark or even the Bandit and Bardot project entirely, but federal law requires an actual intent to use when filing the application. “The trademark application was filed based on an ‘intent to use’ the Bandit and Bardot trademark,” Gerben says. “The attorney that submitted the application signed a sworn statement that Miley’s company has a ‘bona fide intent to use’ this trademark in connection with the items listed in the application.”
It’s unclear what Simpson’s involvement will be in Bandit and Bardot, but a newly created Instagram account for the project lists Cyrus and Simpson as the only people the account follows. The pair have known each other for years, having met at Art Basel, and Cyrus even did the artwork for Simpson’s 2015 single “Flower.” “He’s a super fucking cool guy and an epic guitar player and singer,” she told Rolling Stone at the time.
They were first spotted on a date in October. Since then, they have appeared all over each other’s Instagram grids and stories, and Simpson even released a song inspired by their relationship called “Golden Thing.“
Like Cyrus, 22-year-old Simpson has a teen pop past. The Australian singer-songwriter got his start on YouTube a decade ago, covering pop songs. He made his debut at 13-years-old with the single “iYiYi” featuring Flo Rida. More recently, he has focused on breezy acoustic pop songs.
Cyrus’ trademark attorney declined to comment. Reps for Cyrus and Simpson did not return requests for comment.