# What legal rights do I have to my own name? (re: Rick Ross)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-legal-rights-do-i-have-to-my-own-name-re-rick-ross/544141>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 22, 2010, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-legal-rights-do-i-have-to-my-own-name-re-rick-ross/544141 "2010-06-22T17:51:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-legal-rights-do-i-have-to-my-own-name-re-rick-ross/544141/21 "2010-06-23T19:26:43Z")

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> [@Polycarp](#):
>
> To be totally clear on this, …
> 
> The precedent is not that you cannot use your own name if someone else has trademarked it – there’s at least one McDonald’s Restaurant around that demonstrated to the court that they were in business under that name before the guys with the clown mascot and the golden arches moved into that market – but that you cannot sell rights to something, including your own name if it was part of a brand name for a product, and still continue to use it in competition with the people you sold the rights to.

But regardless, as mentioned by the McDonalds example: even if some guy named Taylor came along and tried to make wines, sale of name rights or not - he would be too late. The name, in relation to wine, is already taken in that area/country.

The fact that he had sold the right, willingly or not, was just icing on the cake?

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