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Can I use the name Friedrich Nietzsche as commercial application title that will be available globally?

I know that his books are in the public domain and I can use fragments in my app but I don't know anything about his name. Who holds the copyright for his name? Or can I use at least F. Nietzsche?

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  • Names usually aren't protected by copyright, but they might be protected by trademarks, which is an entirely different beast of intellectual property law.
    – Philipp
    Commented Jul 17, 2020 at 14:31

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There is no copyrighting names

There are personality rights and trademark issues

Personality rights are easy - Nietzsche is dead, he doesn’t have any.

Trademarks (which can be registered or common-law) apply to business usage and are limited by geography and product time. If no one is already using the name for your product in your market, you can.

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