How can a band or artist protect its name?
Like many things in the law: it depends. The most important thing for anyone to do is to select a unique name, and begin to use it. The best protection against anyone else using your name, or in some cases, even a similar name, is to get trademark protection in the name. A trademark is a word or phrase, a stylized word or phrase (think logo), or a design, which is used to identify goods or services in the marketplace. The trademarked name distinguishes itself from all others, because the person or entity that holds the trademark can legally prohibit others from using its trademarked name. Trademark owners can also seek monetary damages from anyone using confusing or infringing variations of the trademarked name. That is some powerful protection. It makes sense, however, to grant that kind of protection to someone or some company who has devoted much time, effort and finances to establish its product in the marketplace. Imagine if anyone could just start selling electronic products using the Sony ® name, without payment to THE Sony Corporation, thereby diluting the marketplace with "fake" and perhaps inferior quality products. Sounds like a bad deal for everyone who has worked hard and invested in Sony ®. That is why state and federal laws provide protections against this type of consumer confusion and marketplace dilution.

So how do you get a trademark?
The first thing you must do is select a name that is not infringing on another person or entity's protected name. Remember, uniqueness is paramount in keeping your product (or in the case of performing music, your services) distinct from someone else's. If you select a name someone else has already been using, you are not going to be able to use the same name to sell the same products in the same territory. The first to use a name in a given territory is the one who may register it for their exclusive use. Let me explain. Assume you have selected your name, and you are the only one using that name, at least locally. You have a right to protect that name locally. A state trademark registration can be filed with your state's Secretary of State Offices for a few bucks ($50.00 is the going rate in Minnesota). You have to describe the word or design, and certify under oath the date you first started using the name in commerce. You will also need to submit a specimen or example of the name as you have used it in commerce -like a gig advertisement. While this type of registration protects your use of the name in the state of registration, your protection stops at the border. If you are planning on becoming a band which plays and sells records outside of your state, you should consider protection in a bigger arena: federal trademark registration. Just like many states' registration procedures, the federal registration procedures make you jump through a few hoops. You are asking a federal agency to give you permission to hold a registration that entitles you, and only you, to sell your products or services under that name-and prohibit others from doing so. Again, you will have to make sure you are the first and only entity using that particular name to sell your particular goods or services in the nation. Sounds a little trickier, doesn't it? There are trademark searches and companies that can do that for you, if you can't or don't want to do that yourself. This is an important first step, because if you submit your application for registration and someone else is using your requested name, you won't get your registration and you'll be back at the drawing board (without your application fee of $325.00). OK, so let's assume you have done a thorough search, and you're convinced you are the only one interested in using that name. Start using it beyond your state's borders! Remember, first to use in the territory gives you superior rights for registering your name. Now, for registration purposes, you have a few more considerations. You need to consider if you are registering just the name of your band, or the logo, or both. You need to determine what classification to in which to register your trademark or service mark. Classifications describe the type of good or service you want protected (i.e. if you are registering the name as a performing musical act, someone else might be able to use the name if they are selling food products under the same or a similar name-lookout Cranberries, Meat Puppets & Phish!). Finally, you need to submit a specimen as described above. This is an intensely scrutinized process, and one that can take several months to complete. However, it is your best protection.