Cynics might say that ‘celebrity’ is just another fancy term for salespeople.
But the famous ones are undeterred. They are now protecting how their images are used. Many register their names as trademarks across a whole host of areas; for instance, Britney Spears is registered not only for phonograph records, but also as inflatable furniture.
Recently, In a recent decision by the Trade Mark Registry in the United Kingdom, Sir Alex Ferguson, manager of now ‘not’ greatest football club was considered too famous to register a trademark for his name in class 16 for printed matter such as posters, photographs and stickers.
His applications in other classes of goods, such as ornaments, CD-Roms and clothing, has proceeded to advertisement - where a potential trademark is advertised for three months to allow people to register their objections - in this case a company which produced unendorsed inflatable Sir Alex dolls may wish to object to his trademark registration as they may then be in breach of it..The reason that Sir Alex was refused a trademark in relation to posters is that due to his long-standing fame it was considered that people would not think that he had actually endorsed the photo, but understood that it merely depicted him.
It appears from the decisions being made by the registry that the more famous you are, the less likely you are to be granted a trademark.
But as things are going, one might be able to name one’s daugther, Britney.
