Covariants and the no-name lemma

A close connection between the no-name lemma (concerning algebraic groups acting on vector bundles) and the existence of sufficiently many independent rational covariants is pointed out. In particular, this leads to a new natural proof of the no-name lemma. For linearly reductive groups, the approach has a refined variant based on integral covariants. This fits into the usual context of invariant theory, and yields a version of the no-name lemma that has a constructive nature.