China’s top court has said celebrity names cannot be registered as trademarks in ways that could deceive consumers, part of a legal interpretation that will make life harder for the country’s numerous trademark squatters.
China’s Supreme People’s Court stated that the country’s trademark law bars the names of “public figures from such areas as politics, economics, culture, religion and ethnicity” from being used in trademarks in a way that would mislead consumers about the origin, quality or special characteristics of products.
The interpretation comes a little over a month after the court ruled Michael Jordan had rights over the Chinese translation of his surname, overturning verdicts by lower level courts supporting a Chinese company that had built its business around the moniker of the former Chicago Bulls basketball star without his consent.