Trading under your name is an appealing idea, especially in the
fashion world where designers frequently use their own names as
brands (think Hugo Boss, Donatella Versace, and Tom Ford, to
name but a few). A personal name is the ultimate symbol of identity
and using that alongside a business can inject a much-needed sense
of personality. To take advantage of this, countless celebrities,
including Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, and Kim Kardashian, have successfully registered
their names as trade marks for a variety of goods and services.
If your name is valuable, or has the potential to be valuable,
it is worth thinking about protecting it as a trade mark, whether
or not you are famous. However, use of your name as a trade mark
can cause problems later down the line. It is important to remember
that although the goodwill which you have built up is attached to
your name, it is entwined with that name alone rather than with you
as an individual. Therefore, if your name has been
