Hello, My Name Is Trademarked

When I heard that Jay Z and Beyonce were in the process of trademarking their daughter's name, I had to sit back and wonder.  Trademarking a baby's name?  It's not like they named her after an already trademarked name and would have to fight, like Yahoo or Google.  The name is very original, Blue Ivy Carter.  But now that this information has come out, it makes me wonder if they had thought of that name ahead of time in order to trademark it.

According to them, it's because other people are trying to create a brand using her name and they don't want that.  They don't want Blue Ivy Carter's beautiful name to be exploited at such a young age.  And yet, that link up there suggests that Jay Z and Beyonce are already planning on using that name on a line of baby products.  What?  Wouldn't that be doing exactly what they don't want others doing?  Would it be considered exploitation because they are the parents?  In my opinion, yes. 

The whole point of naming a child is so that they can be an individual.  Yes, there are the exceptions, like Chris, where every other boy and one or two girls in a room are named that, but that's not a big deal.  Look at some celebrities, like Jason Lee, who named his son, Pilot Inspektor (?!?!).  You don't see him going around and trying to trademark that name, do you?  Of course not, because he just wants to be a dad.  He doesn't care about marketing Pilot Inspektor jackets.

Jay Z and Beyonce are household names.  Most people in the world at least know one or both of them and I think that they want to keep that momentum going.  They want to make sure that people will remember them for a long time and if it means using their daughter's name as a brand, then so be it.  I'm not saying that's exactly what they are doing, but really, what other reason would there be to trademark your child's name?  It would be as if I trademarked Abigail's name and forced everyone in the world to pay me royalties anytime they wanted to name something (or someone) Abigail Grace.  That's just ridiculous.  Let people name things what they want.


Until next time.