Re: title protection?

On Wed, May 17, 2000, Eric Eldred <eldred[_at_]eldritchpress.org> wrote:
>
> On Tue, May 16, 2000, John R. Levine <johnl[_at_]iecc.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Fri, 12 May 200, Eric Eldred <eldred[_at_]eldritchpress.org> wrote:
> > >
> > > all i was saying is that BOOK TITLES have not hitherto been
> > > thought to be protected by copyright. yet in this case a BOOK
> > > TITLE is being privatized and propertized by one company that
> > > feels that any BOOK TITLE that is similar would infringe on
> > > its trademark, regardless of whether or not it is possible to
> > > copyright the title.
> >
> > I don't understand your point at all. You are correct that book
> > titles are not copyrighted, and nothing IDG is doing changes that.
>
> Yes, it's normal now for corporations to trademark book titles.
> Now, what happens when they go out of copyright term? Can
> another company reprint the work without infringing on the
> trademark? I wish I could see that clearly.
>
> Also, IDG as noted in my first postings is aggressively pursuing
> trademark infringement cases against non-commercial publishers
> such as web pages, not permitted by trademark law, as if it were
> copyright infringement, which does not see the distinction.
>
> That's all my point, and its relevance to this mailing list.

Still not right. You emphatically CANNOT "trademark" a book title. You CAN register a trademark that is used to identify a SERIES of books. That trademark may or may not appear in the titles of the books, but it must appear on ALL of the books -- it cannot be the title of a single work.

> Robert C. Cumbow
> Graham & Dunn, P.C.
> 1420 Fifth Avenue, 33rd Floor
> Seattle, Washington 98101-2390
> Phone: 206-340-9619
> Fax: 206-340-9599
> E-mail: rcumbow[_at_]grahamdunn.com
> Website: http://www.grahamdunn.com/
>

		Big law firm experience
	without the big law firm experience.SM

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