The young Dominican Ángel Rosario, who rose to fame in the artistic world a few months ago with the Dembow “Piropi” and “AIO”, certainly did so when he decided to use a stage name Ángel Dior to confer power and name establish a powerful global brand like that of Parfums Christian Dior (PCD), without perhaps imagining that he has no right to market his artistic career with a registered trademark.
Angel Dior received a bitter pill this week when a document was released informing him on behalf of the PCD of the ban on using the Dior name and within ten days of the filing of the application for the Ángel Dior trademark before the National Office of Commercial Property (ONAPI).
Through a sealed document, Dior ordered the singer to “cease all use of the Dior trademark in any form or medium. Including signs, posters, business cards, recorded material, web, social media and others”, in addition to “never in the future use or attempt to use the term Dior or any other term or mark similar to any of the PCD marks To”. .
In this sense, it must also “notify in writing the local PCD lawyers, whose names appear at the beginning of this Act, of their willingness to comply with the requirements contained herein, as well as the steps taken to that end.”
The Dembow performer revealed in an interview on the show De Extremo a Extremo (Digital 15) that the brand didn’t know him. “These people are another level, these people are unaware of this madness. It’s easier for them to approach me,” he said.
David Kada
In the case of the Dominican salsa singer David Kada, it happened that his former businessman Charles Alberto Domínguez Martínez from the company AR Entertainment Records, SRL, with which he dissolved business relations in 2014, sued the artist for not being allowed to use the name David Kada further to sing. Carlos David Amparo, his real name in Salseo, who had to make commercial arrangements to sing as David Kada again.
There have always been cases where famous, commercially established names in the world were used to promote new products.
Sometimes changing one letter of the brand name is enough to make it phonetically familiar. It’s a way to quickly connect with consumers and establish yourself in the market without much effort.
For example, in 2020 the American artist Beyoncé He dropped a lawsuit against the Feyoncé portal, a website that sells fiancee products, and played on the words fiancee (fiancée in English) and Beyoncé.
The deal had nothing to do with the singer, who could have seen her name compromised with this portal.
A situation deemed “ridiculous” was that with the Apple brand and Stephanie Carlisi, an artist who uses the nickname Franki Pineapple and who was sued by the powerful Apple for being too similar to his “both were names of fruits and therefore give a similar commercial impression.”
The company also tried to challenge the logo, which is a grenade/pineapple accompanied by an explosion. This isn’t the first time Apple has sued a company for trivial reasons.
However, unlike Carlisi, who won the case, many companies or individuals had to withdraw because they felt their financial resources and situation were insufficient to face a company like Apple.
There are also companies who dare to use the image, names or trademarks of celebrities, like what happened to Puerto Rican Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, given name bad bunny, and Rimas Entertainment, the company that works for Bad Bunny, are suing the South Florida brewery, Brand Brewing Company, for alleged “unfair competition” and “deceptive advertising” on cans of beer sold under the San Benito name and miscellaneous Commercials promotional items.
2019 Ariana Grande filed a lawsuit against clothing company and beauty spin-off brand Riley Rose (Forever 21), alleging they “stole” the singer’s name, image and intellectual property “to promote her brands for free,” using a “similar model”.
According to the case, the company had sought a sponsorship deal with the artist a year earlier, but that didn’t materialize because Forever 21 disagreed with the costs charged by the artist.
Forever 21 and Riley Rose have posted at least 30 unauthorized images and videos “abusing Ariana Grande’s name, likeness, likenesses and music to create the wrong perception of her endorsement.”
rihanna
In January 2019, singer Rihanna sued her father for allegedly using her name, as well as some of her trademarks, to try to do business without a permit.
Rihanna denounced that her father, Ronald Fenty, started a company called Fenty Entertainment, posing as an agent for her to try to make money. Fenty would have founded the company Fenty Entertainment in 2017 to sign contracts on his daughter’s behalf, unbeknownst to her. He even negotiated a concert tour for Rihanna in Latin America.