Production name search/ownership/legality

[shakas]

I was wondering if anyone has any official info on how you go about finding out if your production name is available to use & how you claim it for yourself. Can this be done online ? Does it cost money ? I'm also curious if just adding a period to the end of an already taken name or an apostrophe somewhere in the name changes it enough for you to use ? (No, I don't mean calling yourself Skrill'ex and claiming it's different, I'm talking about if the name you want is inactive but taken). I'm sure these laws change internationally, but, I'm in the US. If you have knowledge of how this all works in another country, feel free to share it here too...I'm sure it would be useful to others. It would suck to make up graphics, set up pages and acquire followers just to have to turn around, change everything and start over. This is what happened to Coven last year when he had to change his name to Koven because some obscure 1960s rock band still owned the name.

[ehbes]

Type it into google and see what comes up

[fragments]

Pretty sure in the US you'd have to copyright it like a brand name. I'm guessing 99% of ALL artists/DJs aren't doing this. Could be wrong about the last part, but the way things seem to work is that if someone is nationally/internationally known everyone else kindly keeps their hands off. @Skrill'ex there is a user on another music forum I frequent who uses the name Syllix (or something like it, same pronunciation)...at least for his profile name. Cracks me up every time.

[fhsueh]

An artist name cannot be copyrighted.

It's a trademark, that identifies goods/services you provide.

Unless you really stand to profit from your work as X artist, there's almost no point in spending the money to register the trademark. And if you're worried about being confused with another artist, just make it easy on yourself and pick something as unique as possible.

Down the line, if you're starting to profit, then consider applying for trademark protection. Your use before others is a good piece of evidence for registrability.

There is process whereby you register the trademark with the USPTO, and also obtain worldwide protection.

[Skeemstep]

Legally speaking, how entitled to my name am I if it's my last name backwards?

[Eskimo]

Legally speaking, how entitled to my name am I if it's my last name backwards?

Pretty safe m8

[fhsueh]

Legally speaking, how entitled to my name am I if it's my last name backwards?

Doesn't really make a difference where the name comes from. It's how it's used and in what industry. Someone else could start using a brand that resembles or matches your name and it would be perfectly fine unless you could prove they were intentionally trying to profit off your identity.

By the same token, if another producer started using your artist name before you and has a following to protect they could have an action against you, regardless of how you arrived at the name.

Most of this is academic though. If it's a real issue for any of us, you're probably in a better place career wise

[Skeemstep]

Legally speaking, how entitled to my name am I if it's my last name backwards?

Doesn't really make a difference where the name comes from. It's how it's used and in what industry. Someone else could start using a brand that resembles or matches your name and it would be perfectly fine unless you could prove they were intentionally trying to profit off your identity.

By the same token, if another producer started using your artist name before you and has a following to protect they could have an action against you, regardless of how you arrived at the name.

Most of this is academic though. If it's a real issue for any of us, you're probably in a better place career wise

Haha thanks man. I was just messing around though. Hopefully nobody will ever try to take legal action against it... that'd just be kind of ridiculous