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Is it legal to use a similar name as another artist?

  • I am a brand new artist, however I have been making music for 20 years, I just never wanted to release any myself.  I've settled on a name about 10 years ago, and a while back I setup a Facebook fan page and joined some online music communities under that name.  I noticed I got quite a few likes on Facebook.  Then one day I accidentally made a mistake in my name and found another artist with a very similar name.  His uses numbers such as 4 in place of the letter A, as an example, the rest is the same.  So the difference is like comparing a MR. BANANA to a MR. B4N4N4.  He has a larger following, performs in clubs, has an active YouTube channel, and a few more likes than me on Facebook. I haven't put anything up for sale yet with my name because luckily I discovered this in time.  Would I be in legal trouble if I went ahead and used my name anyway?  Would he have a valid case against me?  I did settle on my name before him, but nothing was officially registered with it back in the 90s.  :(

  • Answer:

    There are a few different dimensions to this issue, if the other artist has trademarked the name they use then they have broad rights to prevent you from using any name that could reasonably be seen to cause confusion among consumers, your name does not have to be an exact match, it it's close enough to cause confusion then you could be in violation of their trademark. Trademark is not the only issue though, in US tort law there is a concept known as the "tort of passing off" that is intended to prevent people (or entities) from trading on the reputation or personality rights of other people, so even if a musician's name is not trademarked or trademarkable they still might sue someone who has a close name. If you could prove that you were using the name before the other person then you could, in theory, force them to stop using their stage name however given the fact that you didn't actually use the name in public in any way that doesn't really apply in your case. In 2004 Canadian electronic musician Daniel Victor Snaith, who used the stage name Manitoba changed his stage name to Caribou because another musician, Richard "Handsome Dick" Manitoba (formerly a member of the punk band The Dictators) threatened to sue over passing off. There are many cases of musicians and bands who have had to change their names or use a variant stage name in other markets because of other prior uses, Death from Above 1979 was originally just Death from Above, UK band Bush had to call themselves Bush X in North America and UK ska band The Beat goes by The English Beat in North America.

Norm Soley at Quora Visit the source

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There are quite a few examples that say a lot about the difficulties that you will be facing if you try to keep the name you chose. This is basically a question of copyright. The best-known example is probably that of the British band Suede who had to call themselves The London Suede in North American, all because of a little-known American lounge singer that went under the name Suede and had the rights to that name. Some think that this proved to be a major obstacle for Suede the band. Lead singer Brett Anderson certainly felt that way. See http://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/09/arts/the-pop-life-364095.html

Hans Hyttel

It is very difficult to get a trademark that consists of only a person's name, specifically because names are not unique. This is normally a requirement by record labels for publishing records or music tracks, unless that name seems very unique. Beyonce and Madonna don't have much to worry about, I would think. I the movie industry, actors are generally required to have a unique form of their name in the credits, at least they do if they are in the union. Thus this rule leaves "Tony Hopkins" available to a new actor, but not Anthony Hopkins (who is said to go by the name "Tony" in day-to-day use). But yes, it is legal to have the same name as another artist and to practice your trade under that name, as long as it is not trademarked by someone else. And as I said, this is very hard to get trademarked. As for copyright: there are all sorts of works by authors with the same name. Here are some literary examples: http://www.librarything.com/topic/8029 But this happens all the time and isn't really considered to be a legal problem. You have to demonstrate your copyright anyway, so this also demonstrates that it was you and not another Doug Jones (or whatever your name is...)

Todd Gardiner

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