Hi folks, I don't normally cut & paste whole articles to the list, but given the recent discussion about over-zealous lawyers, this article from the Guardian today seems sadly apposite. Great punch line too!
Azeem in London Not that Bill Wyman "I'm a total nobody," says Bill Wyman, a staff writer on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "and this just doesn't make any sense. Rock writers live for a star to notice them and when it happens they become bores who dine out on it. I'll be dining out on this for weeks." The subject of Wyman's dinner conversation will be the letter he received recently from Howard Siegel at Pryor Cashman Sherman & Flynn, a Manhattan legal firm representing former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman. The Atlanta Wyman stands accused of misleading his public, who will, Siegel alleges, confuse him with his bass-playing, restaurant-owning, Mandy Smith-marrying namesake. Wyman has only one defence for this alleged "passing off" - he uses the name he was born with. If anyone should be in the dock, it is his parents. He was ready to suggest to Siegel that henceforth his pieces be bylined "Not That Bill Wyman", but then he recalled that "The Real Bill Wyman" had been born William Perks and had only changed his name to Bill Wyman in 1964 - three years after the birth of Not That Bill Wyman. The Rolling Stones star was using his name! "I've been a writer for so long that people don't even mention my name any more," says Not That Bill Wyman. "It's just not an issue." NTBW says there is no possibility of confusion - he isn't English, doesn't play bass and has never had the good fortune to date younger women. NTBW thinks it may be a case of corporate lawyers pushing trademark protection too far, but Siegel is unrepentant. "Some may construe this as fair game for yet another bad lawyer joke," he says. "I can well understand that reaction as an initial response to a request that one not use, or clarify the use of, their own name. But the public policy interest in avoiding consumer confusion must also be considered. Has it never occurred to Mr Wyman the journalist that some of his readership might be confused when reading an article on the Rolling Stones written by Bill Wyman? NTBW says he intends to stick with Bill Wyman. "I've had a lot of lawyers offering to represent me and saying they would be happy to work on a pro bono basis," he says. "But if they did, I suppose the lead singer of U2 would sue me."
