Tiger Woods faces down Om Agro Chemicals in trademark opposition

We’ve all heard the often-used boardroom adage that “there are no bad ideas” and I can appreciate the usefulness of this notion when brainstorming and problem-solving.  But I submit the following that, well, some ideas are indeed bad.  The Economic Times has reported that a Mumbai-based metal manufacturer has attempted to register “Tiger Woods” as a trademark.

As one would expect, Tiger Woods’ representatives reportedly have filed an opposition to Om Agro Chemicals’ application.  In Om Agro’s application, it apparently claims that it developed the idea of seeking Tiger Woods as a trademark for its products in early 2010.

Aside from Woods’ extensive collection of registered trademarks, it is noteworthy that the effort to trademark Tiger Woods would be limited not only by Woods’ preexisting portfolio of trademark registrations and common law trademark rights, but also by his Right of Publicity.    In fact, even without his trademark arguments, his Right of Publicity ought to be sufficient to stop any products or advertising from taking place using the name Tiger Woods.  As such, even if Om Agro could have sneaked its trademark application through to registration, there would be little they could do with it in the marketplace.  And frankly, that’s how it should be and serves as a good example of the Right of Publicity in action.

That said, because a company with presumably no right to use Tiger Woods’ name, image, likeness or persona in commerce has applied for a trademark registration based on his name, Woods faces the necessity of paying for his legal team to file trademark oppositions.  Such is the burden of the famous, I suppose:  if a name has value, it must be protected from those who would attempt to take it.

Here’s a link to the story:  http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-09-14/news/33844193_1_application-tiger-woods-tag-heuer