Pop singer to secure her right to a name

Gloria Tang Tsz-kei, a pop singer from Hong Kong, recently split with her agents but wants to use her stage name Deng Ziqi, which the company has registered as a trademark.

Some lawyers said a trademark and a stage name are different and Tang can continue to use the name.

If Tang thinks the registration infringes on her right to a name, she can apply to invalidate the trademark, they said.

Tang has not responded to the registration and her assistant said they will ask lawyers to handle the affair.

Zhang Dan, ex-manager of Tang, said: "The company registered Tang's name mainly because it wanted to prevent piracy."

"We at this stage need to consult lawyers to decide how to deal with it and hope the outside world will not make assumptions," Zhang said.

If Tang did not know about the registration, she can apply to make the trademark invalid, a lawyer surnamed Liu told Guangzhou-based Information Times.

Liu added that if Tang knew about and agreed to the registration, she can, in the name of a prior right holder, apply for the declaration of an invalid trademark.

Zhang Yanfei at the Guangdong Qidai Law Office said that from the perspective of public awareness, the name belongs to Tang and it cannot be exclusively used due to the trademark rights, which is mainly aimed at commercial activities.

Zhang cited the trademark Li-Ning, a sports brand in China, which was named after the retired champion gymnast, as an example. The trademark cannot stop Chinese people having the name Li Ning, Zhang said.

The right of a name involves aliases, pen names and used names. Tang can still use her name unless the contract says she cannot use it after ending the deal with her management company, Zhang said.

Whether the company infringed on Tang's right to the name partly depends on her popularity, Zhang said, citing basketball star Michael Jordan's case.

The Supreme People's Court ruled in December 2016 that the registered trademark of Chinese company Qiaodan Sports infringed on Jordan's right to his name and violated the Trademark Law.

The court said the company knew Jordan had a long-term and widespread popularity in China and still used "Qiaodan", a transliteration of "Jordan" in Chinese characters, to apply for the trademark registration. It misled the public into thinking its goods had specific relations with Jordan, such as endorsement and permission.

If the trademark registration happened before Tang became popular, or if she agreed to the registration after she became famous, it should not be infringement, Zhang said.

Tang is not the only one in China whose stage name was registered as a trademark by other people.

Liu Chunyan, better known by her stage name as Jinguizi, became popular in the 1990s as she hosted the children's TV program Big Pinwheel.

Because "Jinguizi" had been registered as a trademark by others, Liu applied to invalidate the trademark in October 2017. She claimed the registration infringed on her right to a name.

The former Trademark Review and Adjudication Board ruled the disputed trademark was invalid in September 2018. The trademark holder appealed the result and filed a complaint with the Beijing Intellectual Property Court, which has not given a ruling.

songmengxing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 03/21/2019 page17)