Name rights: How to protect your artist name and song titles?

Artist names are protected by copyright provided they are new and original.

They can also be protected under trademark law by registering with the Institut national de propriété industrielle (INPI), although this is not compulsory.

It may be advisable for artists to register a domain name in order to establish a precedent in the event of another artist registering a trademark at a later date.

However, these artists should take care to operate a website directly related to the domain name, so that there is no ambiguity as to the fact that, prior to the registration of the other artist's trademark, there was indeed a site dedicated to the artist with a name identical or similar to his or her own.

This is a sine qua non for valid anteriority as defined by case law. 

 For titles of musical works, it's more complicated to find an original, new sign and thus obtain copyright protection for it.

It may therefore be appropriate to protect the title of a work as a trademark, particularly in the entertainment category (class 41 of the Nice Agreement classification). 

To do this, however, you will first need to carry out a prior art search to ensure that you are not infringing on the rights of a third party who already possesses an enforceable right that predates the filing of the trademark.

Further information: A band's name is the undivided property of its members. In the event of division, it passes only to those members who ensure the continuation of the group's artistic project. (Civ. 1ere, January 25 2000, Gipsy Kings case; Civ. 1ere, June 11 2009, Quilapayun case)