My Name Is Prince, And I Am Fu..... (The Importance Of An Artist Being A Brand Whore)

Don't think for one second when you have seen or heard of Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs, changing his name several times over the past decade to "Puffy", "P-Diddy", "Diddy". or a host of names he has chosen to call himself, that he has not protected his brand by trademarking each name change so that no other would be able to use it for their financial benefit. He is the ultimate brand whore and everyone should take a stern lesson from him, and follow his example on how to protect and promote your "brand". This is exactly why Rick Ross and others have contracted with him to manage their individual brands.

I also think Mike Jones had one of the best promotional gimmicks to come along in the past decade in this business, and a lot of artists jumped on the bandwagon after doing so. He would constantly repeat his name and a phone number to download a ringtone and get other pertinent information in one of his first releases, to the point of irritation, until it was engrained into your memory. Even though you tired of hearing this over and over again, I bet you were one of those called that number, right?Although other artists that came before him like Prince with his song "My Name Is Prince", also took advantage of their brand, no one quite capitalized off his brand as a new artist in the business like Mike Jones did. You can argue that Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Myley Cyrus, The Jonas Brothers, and others have transcended the way artists should look at their brands today, but Mike Jones was one of the few new artists that knew what to do out of the gate, to insure his brand was in the eyes, ears and minds of the masses.

Why are brands so important? Just look at the brands of "The Beatles", Michael Jackson, "Nirvana", "The King Of Pop", "Bob Marley", "Prince", etc., and when you see the millions of dollars of revenue that is generated yearly off of these brands alone, from music, images, names, etc, you will see the importance of protecting your brand. Don't wait for a major distributor, your attorney, or other entity to protect it for you, own it before you make these deals and/or agreements. You are the responsible for taking charge of your music business career, and you will face the consequences of not doing so, in the long run.

I now see so many artists using the same moniker aka "So and So", "Lil So and So", The Real So And So", etc. It does not matter how much you claim you had the name first or that your brands is hotter and more relevant than the other artists who also share your moniker and brand name, if you did not trademark it, and someone else did, guess what, you do not have the rights to it, period, case closed.

According to the United States Trademark and Patent Office, a trademark is a brand name which includes any word, name, symbol, or device used, or intended to be used, in business to identify and distinguish the goods of one company from the goods of another. They are also seen as a pathway to riches by a misguided few.

Just like with patents, questionable trademark applications are routinely filed. They may simply be phrases that are commonly used to refer to a company or product. They may be a slogan used to describe a sound, word, or experience. These are, usually, an overreaching of trademark rules. They are an attempt by companies or people to “own something” which is essentially owned by the public.