Navigating the Identity Thicket in China from a Comparative Lens: Conflicting Control Rights over a Person’s Name

The proliferation of "idol culture" and "social media influencers" in China has urged an increasing number of persons to seek to become celebrities who are "famous for being famous". Yet becoming active in the entertainment industry gives rise to both old and new identity thicket issues centred on the overlapping and contradictory control rights over celebrities' names. This article focuses on unravelling these identity thicket issues from comparative experiences, with a focus on the US experience. It first introduces the potential coexistent rights to a person's name and explores the how those rights might be vested in different parties in today's entertainment industry in China. The article then proceeds to divide the identity thicket arising from conflicting rights into three scenarios, and this is followed by a detailed explanation of the particulars of each scenario. A key finding is that current Chinese law fails to provide clear legal solutions to solve the identity thicket issues in scenarios 2 and 3. After outlining the importance of resolving the identity thicket and the comparative experiences, the article offers reform suggestions tailored to each scenario, with an effort made to balance the interests of name holders and trademark holders while avoiding too much consumer confusion.