But convicted rapist Ted Alvin Klaudt and his “Common Law Copyright Notice” can go whistle.
For a former state legislator (South Dakota) Ted Alvin Klaudt’s understanding of the law is abysmal. A name cannot be copyrighted, and even if Ted Alvin Klaudt had trademarked his name it would have had to be for a specified commercial purpose – if you were a bureaucrat behind the desk of the relevant trademarks registration body, would you approve an application that basically read “trademarked for the purpose of gagging the press so that they can’t publish the fact that Ted Alvin Klaudt is a convicted sex offender”?
Um. Wow. This is exactly what sent my oldest brother to jail. He got involved with some movement that said you could do this (“copyright” your name and sue other people for “violations” of that copyright) and filed paperwork that declared that the DA in his county owed him some quarter million (I think he had $50,000 as a figure, and five “violations”) which prevented her from being able to sell her house, and she came back after him. And he went to jail.