Using Your Own Name May Be Infringement, Part 2

phillymjs writes "We're probably all familiar with Uzi Nissan and his fight to keep his nissan.com domain name from the clutches of Nissan Motors. Well, more same-name idiocy came to light today-- the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting that their staff music writer, Bill Wyman, has received a cease-and-desist letter from lawyers representing former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman, for "a seriously misleading and, arguably, an intentional, unauthorized exploitation of our client's name, goodwill and publicity value." It should be interesting to see how this one plays out, because Bill Wyman the musician was born William George Perks and changed his name to Bill Wyman in 1964. Journalist Bill Wyman was given that name at his birth in 1961."

Comments

A C&D is just a LETTER

[sulli]

though many people seem to ignore this simple fact. This guy did the right thing, which was to tell the wannabe-Wyman to shove it up his ass.

Re:What do you call a bleeding lawyer in a shark t

[netwiz]

Because the average human is a loathsome, greedy, insensitive fool. As a result of this story, along with hundreds of others reported over the past decade or so (about how long I've really been following things), I am now convinced that our species will not survive past the next century.

When will the madness end?

[Blimey85]

If your legal name from birth conflicts with a companies name, I think it should be left to "first come, first served" reasoning. I don't think that either has more right to the domain name than the other. Whoever got it first should be able to keep it, unless the sole purpose that the person who has it has it, is to exploit the name. By that I mean if your name is Nissan and you get the domain name, and then you decide to start selling cars, or car accessories to profit off of the name that is usually associated with another company, that should not be allowed. If on the other hand your name is Nissan and you have a site that shows pictures of your wife, kids, and your dog, then that should be perfectly legal. You have as much right to the domain name as anyone else because:

a) it's your legal (from birth) name
b) your not trying to profit off of the name
c) you registered the name first

I think it's Nissan's (the company) fault for not registering the name first. Now they are left out in the cold. Too bad, so sad. Better luck next time.

Read the article

[RealityProphet]

This article isn't even about cybersquatting! It is about some guy who happens to work for this newspaper and who happens to sometimes write about the Rolling Stones. The musical Wyman wants the columnist wyman to put a discalimer on everything he writes that he is in fact NOT the musical Wyman! How ridiculous!

Re:What do you call a bleeding lawyer in a shark t

[KnightStalker]

The law firm is in NYC. The Stones' Bill Wyman may not even know about the lawsuit. Lawyers are like that. Remember the fuss over "killustrator" in Germany?

The Letter of the Law

[Transient0]

It's true. We live in a country(I'm actually canadian, but the argument is the same in either nation) where ignorance of the law is not a valid defence and yet the countries COMPLETE legislation could not be read by a single person in their entire lifetime. BTW, my given first name is Duff so(although the product in my case is fictional) I have a lot of experience with the name/trademark crossover. I don't own duff.com(warning... porno), but if I did, you can bet I would raise all hell if FOX tried to take it from me.

Re:silly

[Arandir]

No one should ever be forced to change their given name. Period. Why can't people like you understand that real people are living real lives, and that they names are not properties to be bought and sold via lawsuits.

There is absolutely NO inconvenience if both Bill Wymans use their own names. Geez! Next thing you know you'll be arguing that there should be only one John Smith in the world.