Is it legal to use celebrity names and character names as domain names?

In recent years, domain name registration has frequently involved the registration of celebrity names and fictional character names, which has aroused the society's continuous attention to the protection of intellectual property rights under the "symbolic economy". From a legal perspective, the legality of such behavior needs to comprehensively consider the cross-application of the right to name, copyright and anti-unfair competition law, while taking into account the technical characteristics and commercial attributes of domain name registration.

1. Domain name registration principles under the legal framework

According to the "Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Civil Dispute Cases Involving Computer Network Domain Names" issued by the Supreme People's Court in 2001, the determination of domain name infringement must meet four requirements: the plaintiff's rights and interests are legal and valid, the domain name is similar to the well-known trademarks of others, the defendant has no legitimate reason for registration, and the registration and use are malicious. Among them, the determination of "malicious" is particularly critical, including commercial purpose registration, high-priced resale, and preventing the right holder from registering.

In judicial practice, courts often cite Article 2 of the "Anti-Unfair Competition Law" as a supplementary basis. For example, in the "Zhou Libo Domain Name Case", the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court determined that the act of registering the pinyin of a well-known artist's name as a domain name and offering it for sale at a high price constituted unfair competition of "using other people's names without authorization", and ruled that the domain name belonged to the right holder. This case broke through the traditional personal rights protection scope of the right to name and highlighted the property rights and interests of the name symbol in the commercial field.

2. Judgment differences in typical cases

The 2009 "Lu Xun Domain Name Case" concentratedly demonstrated the complexity of legal application. Wuhu citizen Wang Feng registered domain names such as "Lu Xun.cn" to point to memorial websites, and Lu Xun's son Zhou Haiying filed a lawsuit on the grounds that his right to name was infringed. Although the court finally ruled that Wang Feng stopped using the domain name, it did not support the request for domain name transfer on the grounds that there was a lack of clear legal basis. This case exposed the legislative gap in the protection of celebrity name domain names. Compared with the "right of publicity" system in the United States, my country's current laws focus more on protecting the personal interests of names rather than commercial value.

Domain name registration of fictional character names is also controversial. For example, in the "Guo Xiang" trademark registration case, the court determined that applying for the name of a well-known literary character as a trademark may lead to public misconception and constitute infringement based on the "prior rights" clause in Article 32 of the Trademark Law. This logic also applies to the domain name field: if a character name has a high market recognition, registering it as a domain name and using it for commercial activities may be considered to infringe the legitimate rights and interests of the copyright owner or relevant rights holders.

III. Compliance boundaries and risk warnings for domain name registration

According to the "Interim Provisions on Anti-Unfair Competition on the Internet", if the name of another person (including pen names and stage names) is used as the main part of the domain name without authorization, it is enough to mislead people into believing that there is a specific connection with others, which constitutes confusing behavior. This means that even if the registration behavior itself is legal, if there is an intention to mislead the public during use, it may still face legal liability.

Although personal domain name registration complies with the internationally accepted "first come, first served" principle, the following risks should be noted:

1. The registration of well-known trademarks or names of well-known figures may be judged as malicious;

2. Failure to actually use or resale at a high price after registration will become evidence of infringement;

3. When it comes to the names of fictional characters, it is necessary to ensure that the copyright protection period has not exceeded or authorization has been obtained.

At present, the judicial judgment of domain name disputes shows a trend of evolving from "similarity in form" to "substantial confusion". Whether it is a celebrity name or a fictional character name, its legitimacy as a domain name ultimately depends on whether it follows the principle of good faith and whether it damages the legitimate rights and interests of others. Against the background of the continued rise of the Internet symbol economy, balancing the reasonable allocation of domain name resources and intellectual property protection is still a legal issue that needs to be solved urgently.