Gloria Tang Tsz-kei, a pop singer from Hong Kong, recently split with her agents but wants to use her stage name Deng Ziqi, which the company has registered as a trademark. Some lawyers said a trademark and a stage name are different and Tang can continue to use the name. If Tang thinks the registration infringes on her right to a name, she can apply to invalidate the trademark, they said. Tang has not responded to the registration and her assistant said they will ask lawyers to handle the affair. Zhang Dan, ex-manager of Tang, said: "The company registered Tang's name mainly because it wanted to prevent piracy." Whether the company infringed on Tang's right to the name partly depends on her popularity, Zhang said, citing basketball star Michael Jordan's case. The Supreme People's Court ruled in December 2016 that the registered trademark of Chinese company Qiaodan Sports infringed on Jordan's right to his name and violated the Trademark Law. The court said the company knew Jordan had a long-term and widespread popularity in China and still used "Qiaodan", a transliteration of "Jordan" in Chinese characters, to apply for the trademark registration. It misled the public into thinking its goods had specific relations with Jordan, such as endorsement and permission. If the trademark registration happened before Tang became popular, or if she agreed to the registration after she became famous, it should not be infringement, Zhang said.

Source: China Daily