A friend of mine just forwarded me this article, I'm assuming from the AP Wire:

A US journalist has reportedly been contacted by lawyers representing a former Rolling Stones member Bill Wyman over use of his name, which happens to be the same as the guitarist.

Journalist Bill Wyman, a staff writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has written an article about receiving the letter, a copy of which is included on the newspaper's website. He wrote that the letter, from Howard Siegel, of New York-based Pryor Cashman Sherman & Flynn, threatened "legal action" over use of his name.

"Mr Siegel magnanimously allowed I could continue to use my own name if I could prove that I had come by it legally, and if I added a disclaimer to everything I wrote in the future, 'clearly indicating that [you are] not the same Bill Wyman who was a member of the Rolling Stones'," he added.

Bill Wyman's former Stones' colleagues are still going strong. The journalist said that having been a pop music writer for more than 20 years, he had worked effectively with Rolling Stones publicists in the past with no problems.

"I remember scarfing up some food next to Keith Richards backstage at a shed in the middle of Wisconsin with no legal repercussions," he said.

The journalist added that the former Stone was actually born William George Perks, and changed his name to Bill Wyman by deed poll in 1964, according to a book about him called Stone Alone.

"Me, I was born Jan 11, 1961. What I need now is a lawyer to ask Mr. Siegel that his client stop using a name I have claim to by several years," he said.

Pryor Cashman Sherman & Flynn were unavailable for comment.

Sheesh. If this is how things are going nowadays, I'd better keep my eyes open for a letter from Major League Baseball. Tom Bruno is the name of a former player who pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1978 and 1979 (before that he'd played for Kansas City and Toronto). I remember how weird it was as a kid to get baseball cards and find my own name in the stack. Little did I know at the time that I was violating the MLB's and Mr. Bruno's intellectual property rights! What a little felon I was! But like Bill Wyman, I would have a possible avenue of legal retaliation, if push came to shove - I was named after my father, also Tom Bruno, and whereas the St. Louis Cardinal Tom Bruno was born in 1953, my father was born in 1949. Maybe he and I should be sending a cease-and-desist to Major League Baseball, as a pre-emptive strike. Those are all the rage these days, so I hear...

p.s.- Whatever you do, don't try looking for a picture of the above-mentioned Tom Bruno using Google's image search. But if you do, in the name of all that is holy, do not look at this picture. That's not me on the far left, looking like a total dingbat. I deny everything.