A short while ago I was astonished to hear that a young local artist has been allowed to legally change her name to that of William Kentridge – who as you may know is a very much alive, exceedingly talented artist who commands high prices for his works of art.AND, she is now exhibiting her art, signing the canvases ‘William Kentridge’ and marketing her exhibitions as such.

How can this be allowed?

Her reasoning went along the lines of “His work….is far more recognisable than mine….it would take me longer to become famous and recognised’. No kidding? Are we now going to see a plethora of people changing their names to Bill Gates or Roger Federer? Will exclusive restaurants start having bookings every Friday night for Donald Trump or Trevor Noah? We will be suddenly blessed with new collections of poems penned by John Keats or Robert Burns? Will Elton John appear in the local primary school play?
I believe this is an absolute travesty – an absolute no no. I canvassed about 50 other people who agree with me. It certainly got me thinking though.

I am not famous (well not yet!), but I would be outraged if someone started signing my name at the bottom of an article I didn’t write.

So, I did a little digging and came across the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) website, where I found the question: “Can I register my name as a trademark?”
The ridiculous answer is: “Yes, you can…provided the Trademark Office of your country or the country for which you are seeking protection considers it “distinctive”. (WIPO,2019).
This is even more outrageous, because of course it’s ‘distinctive’…it’s my name after all! And the very thought of a couple of clerks in the Trademark Office deciding on whether or not my name is ‘distinctive’ is just plain horrifying.

Further research found me in the realms of ‘domain name cybersquatters’ (read domain name thieves) who register web domains using famous people’s name with sole intention of selling it back to the

celebrity for large sums of money. Take TomCruise.com for example. After many hours of legal wrangling, Tom finally won the right to have his own name back!
Do we live in a circus with the clowns running the show? (You don’t have to answer that!)

Cheers
Madonna
Helen