RE: Question About Names

On Monday, October 28, 1996, Holly Huckeba [huckeba[_at_]nevada.edu] wrote:
>
> I haven't been able to find an answer to this question in my own
> library so I'm throwing it out to the group. Any help you can provide
> me is appreciated. My question: What rights does a person have to
> their own first and last name? I would think that as long as I'm using
> another person's name not to impersonate them or make money from it's
> use it would be okay. I need more information on this issue. Thanks.

There is a qualified right of "fair use" with respect to one's own personal name. See Sec. 33 (b) (4) of the Lanham Act, as well as Sec. 13.03 of McCarthy's Trademark treatise.

Also relevant are the rights of publicity and privacy and Sections 2 (a) and 2 (c) of the Lanham Act. These concern, respectively, matter falsely suggesting a connection with persons, living or dead, and names, etc. identifying a particular living individual except without his [or, presumably, her] written consent.

For a case discussion, see E.J. Gallo Winery v. Gallo Cattle Co., 967 F.2d 1280 (9th Cir. 1992); Basile, S.p.A. v. Basile, 899 F.2d 35 (D.C. Cir. 1990).

Ron Abramson
<abramson[_at_]hugheshubbard.com> Received on Wed Oct 30 1996 - 21:16:25 GMT