Your own name?
Come on! These ladies are called Maradona, right? So how can anyone demand that they not use their own name? You can. Although just because you own trademark rights, it doesn’t mean you can prohibit someone from answering the phone with: ”Good afternoon, Dalma Maradona speaking”, But it does matter when you start using your name commercially, and that’s what the ladies are doing.
Oldest rights
Apparently the Maradona sisters are trying to sell products with Diego’s name and image. It’s precisely these same products that Sattvica owns the trademark rights to. With this commercial use, the ladies suddenly fall within the scope of trademark law and the rule of the strongest applies. And in this case that is the trademark holder, Sattvica.
The winning end
Sattvica has owned the rights since 2015. We’ll never know whether Maradona really understood that his lawyer might also take his daughters to court seven years later. But there seems to be a good chance that Sattvica will win the day in this case.
Bas Kist
This article was previously published on Adformatie (Dutch).
