If you have a business as an individual, and it bears your own name, you have probably wondered whether you can protect it as a trademark, thereby preventing others from copying it.
This is relatively common in service sectors where the company is a sole proprietorship, or where the business is identified by the name of the professional who heads the company. It often occurs in sectors such as fashion, music, architecture, coaching, psychology, health, nutrition, interior design, and law.
Can a person's name be registered as a trademark? We explain it in this post.
The distinctive value of a person's name as a brand.
Although we all have a first name and a surname, clearly not all names carry the same weight in the marketplace. In certain sectors, a professional's own name can become a real commercial asset. A first name and surname can become highly recognizable, generate trust, and become associated with a certain quality, style, or experience. That is precisely why it can and should be protected as a trademark.
Sometimes, a person's first and last name ends up becoming a true distinctive sign (just like a logo or an abstract name), so that consumers perceive it not only as “someone's name,” but as a brand of products or services.
Examples of trademarks consisting of the first and last names of real people include: Carolina Herrera, Adolfo Dominguez, Norman Foster, Philippe Starck, Hugo Boss, Ralph Lauren, Serena Williams, Bruce Springsteen o Cristiano Ronaldo. Naturally, all these names are also well-known trademarks (i.e., known to the general public); but the fact that the name has renown (forgive the redundancy) is not a requirement for registering a first and last name as a trademark.
A person's name as a trademark: same requirements as any other type of trademark.
Although it is possible to register a first and last name as a trademark, that does not mean that it will automatically be accepted by the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office or the EUIPO. Like any other distinctive sign, a proper name must meet all the general requirements for registrability set forth in the Trademark Law (LM) and in the European Union Trademark Regulation (RMUE). The name must be distinctive and not incur any absolute prohibition on registration; nor should it be confusingly similar to other previously registered trademarks or other third-party rights.
For example, if you happen to be named Rosa Flores and have set up a flower shop, it is likely that if you try to register the trademark “ROSA FLORES” for florist services in class 44 (What's this about classes?) the trademark is denied due to lack of distinctiveness. Or if your name is Luz Blanca (White Light) and you want to set up a store selling lamps.
Similarly, if your name matches all or part of an already registered trademark, your application for registration may be opposed by the owner of the earlier trademark and denied. Imagine that your name is Rosalía Pérez and you are an artist... It will probably be difficult for you to register it as a trademark. However, this does not mean that you cannot continue to use it, because it is your legal name, as we will see later.
In short, registering a first and last name as a trademark must meet the same requirements as any other type of trademark.
Our usual recommendations for do not apply to register the trademark without first conducting a search report and to hire a regular monitoring of applications for similar trademarks, therefore, continue to apply here.
First particularity: the name cannot identify a person other than the trademark applicant.
Due to the prohibition in Article 9.1 a) LM (and Article 60.2 RMUE, currently under review), “the civil name or image that identifies a person other than the trademark applicant” cannot be registered as a trademark without proper authorization. This makes perfect sense. The person actually identified by the trademark may file an opposition against the application, claiming that the applicant does not have their authorization, and request that the OEPM refuse registration.
Furthermore, when the trademark represents the first name, last name, pseudonym, or any other sign that “for the general public” identifies a person other than the trademark applicant, the OEPM may act ex officio. In other words, if someone tries to apply to register the name of a famous person as a trademark, that famous person is not required to actively file an opposition against the application. The OEPM may issue a brand failure and subsequently reject the application for registration ex officio.
For example, in 2025, the OEPM confirmed the Rejection of the trademark application for “BELLINGHAM”, on the grounds that it identifies the famous Real Madrid player (when the applicant was not Jude Bellingham).
Second peculiarity: the owner of a trademark consisting of a first and last name cannot prevent someone else with the same name from using their own name.
Let's say your name is María Pérez and you are a psychologist.
After several years working for someone else, you decide to open a business consisting of a psychology clinic called “María Pérez.” Over several years of building your professional reputation, people know you by name, your patients want to come to you personally, and you see no reason to open a clinic with a made-up, whimsical, or fancy name.
You did your homework well by commissioning a trademark search report from Bamboo.legal, and there is no registered or pending trademark in Spain that resembles “María Pérez” for psychology services. The trademark is applied for and ends up being granted smoothly and without objection.
After a couple of years, you discover on Google that someone in your city has opened another psychology clinic called “María Pérez.” You do some research and find out that the owner is indeed someone with the same name as you, María Pérez. She is also a psychologist and has also set up her own psychology business. It was unlikely that this situation would arise, but it has. Can you do anything to prevent her from using that name, which you have so diligently registered?
Trademark rights are not absolute and are subject to certain limitations. One of these (Art. 37.1 a) LM and 14.1 a) RMUE) is that the owner of a trademark may not prohibit a third party from using their name or address in the course of trade, provided that the third party uses their name in accordance with fair industrial or commercial practices.
Regarding the concept of “fair practices in industrial or commercial matters,” we can cite the Judgment of the Court of Justice of the EU of September 11, 2007, in Case C-17/06 (Céline case):
“[…] compliance with that requirement of fair practice must be assessed by taking into account, on the one hand, the extent to which the relevant public, or at least a significant part of that public, could understand that the use of its name by the third party denotes a link between the third party’s goods or services and the proprietor of the trademark or a person authorized to use it and, on the other hand, the extent to which the third party should have been aware of that. Another factor to be taken into account in making this assessment is whether the trademark enjoys a certain reputation in the Member State in which it is registered and in which protection is sought, and whether the third party could take advantage of that reputation to market its goods or services.”.
Therefore, in some ways, the right to a name, used in good faith, without the intention of confusing it with the services of other competitors, and without denoting a link to the owner of the registered trademark, takes precedence over trademark rights. In the conflict between the right to use a civil name and trademark rights, the right to a civil name prevails, provided that such use is in accordance with fair industrial or commercial practices.
However, as indicated by the Section 28 of the Provincial Court of Madrid in judgment no. 144/2021, of April 9, In order for this limitation on trademark rights to apply, the use made of another's trademark cannot be “with a distinctive purpose”, because “the foreign brand cannot be used by others in economic traffic as a distinctive sign of business origin.”:
“The use of one's own name and surname as a business identifier is not permitted if it conflicts with a prior trademark right, as this would constitute an infringement of that right. The use of one's own name in commercial transactions cannot be considered lawful if it gives the impression that it is a registered trademark.
In the case at hand, the surnames of the defendants, which they changed at the time to highlight the paternal branch (to which the plaintiff, who is their uncle, also belongs), are not used simply as a means of identifying the individuals who, in the exercise of their professional competence as dentists, treat a patient or form part of a team of healthcare professionals, but are being used, by them and by the companies through which they operate, on establishment signs and in advertising for their clinics, as distinctive signs of business services provided through capital entities. This use is not lawful, as it goes beyond the use by a person of their own name in order to be identified as such, to become a pure trademark use, which gives rise to a risk of confusion and of taking advantage of the reputation of another's priority title belonging to another entrepreneur. Therefore, we are not dealing with a limit that can be opposed to the plaintiff's trademark right.
In other words, it will be necessary to check whether the use that (the other) María Pérez is making of her name is as a trademark (on shop signs and in advertising for her clinics, for example) in order to consider whether the limitation is applicable or not and whether, ultimately, you can prohibit her from using it or not.
However, María Pérez (the first), what you can do, without a doubt, is prevent the other María Pérez from registering her name as a trademark. The limitation that allows the use of the civil name as opposed to the registered trademark does not prohibit the trademark owner from preventing the other person from attempting to register it.
That is why at Bamboo.legal we often say that registering a person's own name as a trademark, although advisable, offers “relative” protection or slightly less protection than if it were a made-up name. Ultimately, you will not be able to prevent someone with the same name as you from offering the same services as you under their own name, provided that they do so in accordance with fair industrial or commercial practices and (in accordance with the criteria of Section 28 of the Provincial Court of Madrid) not as a trademark.
Are you unsure whether you can register your name as a trademark? At Bamboo.legal, we can help you analyze it and guide you through the entire process. Write to us with no obligation at info@bamboo.legal.
