Been wondering.

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I've been wondering about this for some time now. Does the President own the copyright to his name?

Recently there has been a lot of merchandise with his name on it - with people in the distribution chain, like the Chinese makers of the blank items, the American companies putting the logos on them, the distribution companies spreading them among the merchants, the merchants selling them, and the landlords collecting rent from the merchants (and the government collecting the sales and income tax). So, a lot of people make a lot of money by using his name and slogan. In a capitalist society, this means that he should be getting royalties.

Does he, or does the copyright of his name belong to the US people. How about the Ty dolls of his kids? Who owns the copyright of their names?

Please keep this apolitical. This is an economic/legal inquiry.
 
Actually, I wondered the same thing while I was watching the inauguration. The coverage was showing all kinds of people selling T-Shirts, hats, posters, ect. with pictures and quotes from President Obama.
 
Hmm. Interesting question. Now if you're like a certain news agency, you could call the presidency "entertainment" and perhaps claim some trademark infringement ..like Madona tee shirts sold at a concert and whatnot.



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I don't think you can just copyright your name since it's not a work of authorship. You can probably obtain a trademark for your name. I don't know whether presidents do that. If they did, people would need a license to produce products and the pres could make some $$$$$
 
Originally Posted By: Drew99GT
You can probably obtain a trademark for your name.

What if my name is the same as your name and I trademark mine. Does that mean you will have to ask me for permission to use your own name?
 
I don't think you can trade mark your name but I think he could sue them if they were using his likeness (picture on shirt or plate) on a product being sold or advertised. But it would be a big waste of time to try and get money for use of image from a guy selling you shirt
 
Well, I imagine it depends. One lady who named her art shop "Practically Picasso" got sued by the family.

Now if the White House was selling an official tee shirt ..
 
You can't copyright a name. You can make it a trademark, though. You can copyright a likeness. So if you plan on cranking out Obama dolls, make them not too derivative in terms of looks and name them something that doesn't remind one of Obama.

PS: The Golden Gate Bridge is copyrighted. If you take a picture, even if the bridge is only a minor component of the image, you mustn't use that image for commercial purposes with permission (which will cost you), unless you don't mind being sued by the copyright holder.
 
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