Picking a dj name... how hard can it be??

[V0RT3X]

Seriously avoid DJ, especially if you plan on producing your own stuff, since DJ's are mostly seen as guys who play other people stuff.

I imagine that in the future, that if people came to your show and saw DJ they might not take you as seriously as an artist for your own work, because they might assume your playing other peoples stuff.

[Jace-BeOS]

I think I'm right in saying that Thomas Dolby was taken to court by Dolby Laboratories, but the ruling allowed him to continue using the Dolby name providing it was always preceded by 'Thomas', so if there is a company with the same name as yours you could probably argue that by always having 'DJ' in front of it will make it a unique name unrelated to the company and therefore not a trademark infringement

IANAL but best of luck to you!

Jon

Is Dolby not his name? Reminds me of Mike Rowe Soft.

[ksandvik]

I can't see a way a court could take away your personal name indeed if you use it with your first name -- that would be scary if a company would force you to change your given name. Then again who knows, might happen in future as the US supreme court now considers companies as persons.

[lotus2035]

DJ BurgerKing Halliburton IV

[Acid Mitch]

I can't see a way a court could take away your personal name indeed if you use it with your first name -- that would be scary if a company would force you to change your given name.

As far as I know , they couldn't make you change your name but they could stop you using it as a brand.
As pointed out by Jace-BeOS Mike Rowe was forced to change his company name (Mike Rowe soft) as Microsoft didn't like it and took him to court over it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_vs._MikeRoweSoft

[t3toooo]

DJ BurgerKing Halliburton IV

i would write it like this.
DJ BurgerKingHalliburtIV

this way it is much more creative and not so easy to spot from a lawyer.

[randy4me]

Seriously avoid DJ, especially if you plan on producing your own stuff, since DJ's are mostly seen as guys who play other people stuff.

I imagine that in the future, that if people came to your show and saw DJ they might not take you as seriously as an artist for your own work, because they might assume your playing other peoples stuff.

All Dj's play other peoples music. Even the top DJ's in the world. None of them have 40-50 brand new original fresh tracks that they produced to play in a 3-4 hour set.

[lotus2035]

DJ BurgerKing Halliburton IV

i would write it like this.
DJ BurgerKingHalliburtIV

this way it is much more creative and not so easy to spot from a lawyer.

No, but the idea is to piss them off as much as possible. You could do gigs dressed as the Burger King himself with a shit load of weapons strapped to your body.

[mellotronaut]

[randy4me]

DJ ImnotreallydjingbecauseIhaveahugemouseheadon

[kritikon]

I'd recommend to use your real name.

What if he's called Mike Hunt? He's never going to get radio play.

[Tricky-Loops]

DJ Bullshit - as a protest against all these big commercial bullshit DJ's with all their bullshit equipment...

[mellotronaut]

.. bullshit DJ's with all their bullshit equipment...

[kelvyn]

You could just call yourself DJ Name.

[kritikon]

Howsabout "The DJ With No Name"? it worked for The Man...