I'll start by saying I have no clue whatsoever if part of what Prince is griping about is the use of his name in for example prince.org (but that has nothing to do with HQ so I doubt it), but it has been expressed by several fans here that they think that the Org should "give Prince back his name" or words to the same effect. BEFORE people jump on anybody else I'm not singling anybody out as having said this, it was just the most succinct wording I could find.

You who feel this way, how on earth did you come to this opinion? There is no way you could trademark or copyright a birthname, that's just plain ridiculous - if I copyrighted Jenny I'd make everybody who's called that too ask for permission to use it, or force them to change names. It just doesn't work.

If you feel Prince has a right to do this, can you explain why he hasn't sued for example Michael Jackson for naming his son Prince or Will Smith when he used to go by Fresh Prince? There are many more examples of people who're actually named Prince or use it as part of their artist name and "your" Prince certainly doesn't have exclusive rights to it. So how do you explain this?

I'd be very happy to hear actual answers to these questions. Not attacks on me, not preaching - just answers. Thanks!
[Edited 11/22/07 12:10pm]

There's too many pre-existing companies that have Prince as their name.
No one's taken anything from him, much less give it back.

Under the Johnson ruling in the UK, there are circumstances under which you may use even a registered trademark to describe subject matter

The use of the word "prince" in prince.org describes the subject matter contained in the site and therefore would not contravene either copyright or trademark especially as there is no material loss involved

I have still to find or see any registered trademark for the word "prince" that belongs to the purple one

A sports company that does have the word "prince" registered as a trademark would have prior claim or "seniority"

that's crazy talk...

sosgemini said:

Which part?