[filoleg]

Not disagreeing with you, but I am curious about how it works. Singing someone's name feels obviously fine. Dressing as Ronald McDonald though raises some questions on my end.

Aside from "likelihood of a party believing they're conducting business with a party with which they are not", are there any other "rules of thumb" when it comes to this?

What if the owner of Ronald McDonald trademark (apparently, his costume clown face persona+multiple variations of the name are trademarked) didn't like the way the character was portrayed by you or just didn't want you to use it for whichever other arbitrary reason, does their position stand any legal ground? And does their specific reason even matter at all when it comes to this?

[MacsHeadroom]

Trademarks are industry specific. McDonalds has the rights to the likeness of Ronald McDonald in commercial transactions and marketing involving food, and nothing else.

Incidentally, this is why Apple Records, Apple Socks, and Apple Computer can all simultaneously exist.

To this day, Apple Computer pays a licensing fee to Apple Records for the existence of iTunes; because Apple Records has retained the trademark for the use of the word Apple in reference to music sales since before Steve Jobs ever touched a computer.

[filoleg]

Ah, trademarks are industry specific, that explains my confusion. Thanks for taking time to explain this.