Trademark book title uk

A trademark or service mark includes any word, name, symbol, device, or any combination, used or intended to be used to identify and distinguish the goodsservices of one. Trademarkr registered company number 12020247 has filed over 1,000 successful trade mark applications and has helped 100s of international businesses to protect their brands. The book itself is most certainly a work, but lets imagine the situation if applied to the title in its own right. A great title adds a lot to the success of a book and and becomes an important asset to your intellectual property as well as your income. One of the most common questions about trademarks i answer on a daily basis is if one can trademark a book title or not. Publisher carolina academic press isbn 9781531010973. A title of a single work refusal is when the uspto refuses registration of a mark because the sample of how the mark is actually used the specimen or other information in the record shows the mark. If you are writing a book, learning about s is vital. Books titles unregistrable as trademarks in canada. You may be able to trademark a book title or series title a trademark is more difficult to get than a, but you might be able to trademark a book is the u. This is the title of the specific work you want to register. And therein lies lees misunderstanding and her biggest problem.

A distinguished member of the spicy ip blog team has written to the ipkat and his readers for a second opinion. Intellectual property forums trademark a book title. Selecting and protecting the title of your book how to use. But you can trademark a title, which may give you the protection you seek. In my hypothetical, theres a book with the title x, written by an individual a. Generally in the united states, you cannot trademark a single book title, although you can trademark a. Moreover, it was till recent time supposed by various people including. For some reason, the page has the power to intimidate some people, with. Intellectual property forums using a trademark as the. V secret catalogue decision on trademark dilution, is authored by three of the nations preeminent trademark practitioners and teachers. The general rule is that book titles unless part of a series cannot be registered as trademarks. In march 1981, popular author dick francis published a book called reflex. Or can it be argued that the use of the trade marked work title falls within.

Book titles and titles of single creative works new york. Title of a single work refusal and how to overcome this. In my hypothetical, theres a book with the title x. Uk company sues disney over its use of the same public. Heres why you cant a book title, but why you can probably trademark that title. At the point that your book title becomes a brand, it operates as the identifier of the source of all of the fabulous goods and services you offer under that brandconsulting, appearances, blogging, etc. For example, if you write one, individual book called i love trademarks, then you will not be able to trademark this title. Specifically, literary works are given trademark protection only upon a showing of secondary meaning. However, as described in this piece in slate, the motion picture academy of. The work to be registered could be one work, a collection of works or an individual contribution in a. It is wellestablished that the title of a single work, such as a book, is not considered a trademark, and therefore is unregistrablein essence, the title of a work is treated as the name of the work, and.

But in checking out the domain name, i found the title i want to usea fairly obscure and invented wordis registered with a dotcom ending, and further. Current uk ipo practice is to accept trade mark applications for books, although it is unclear whether the subsequent protection embraces book titles, or only publishers marks. One of the most common questions i get from new selfpublishers is, what do i put on the page. This is a definite known unknown in eu trade mark law. You cant trademark your book title, except when you can small. Can a service mark for information and services in. That mark was the title of a book that the defendant published about the grail message, a religious movement that arose out of a series of german writings from the 1920s and 30s. Only the way the title looks can be protected as a mark, such as the way the font, design and colors combine to make it recognizable as the. Every use of a song title or lyric is unique and has its own special circumstances such as whether a or trademark has been filed, the manner of use, the context of the use and more.

Trademark protection for book titles revision legal. The short answer is to simply say that names, titles, short phrases, and also colours, are not considered unique or substantial enough to be awarded protection in their own right, but as this is such. Trademark rights protect the logos, symbols and textual representations that uniquely identify goods in commerce. Sometimes the problem is that two people in the world have the same book title for a different book. The litigants were all involved in the grail message movementa religious movement centred around a series of writings prepared in germany in the 1920s and 1930s. Registering your trademark in that brand name will make sure that other people cant also use it as a brand name although they could also. The unauthorized use or adoption of the title of a film or a book is as much an infringement of a trademark as it is in other cases. The law is clear that you cannot trademark individual book titles, but a title for a series of books can be trademarked since it serves the role of a. The bobbsey twins is a registered trademark for series of fiction books. The reasoning behind this is that trademarks are really meant to. You cant trademark your book title, except when you can. To constitute trademark infringement, the two marks dont have to be exactly alike just confusingly similar. In the uk, trademarks are registered by the intellectual property office and provide the owner with exclusive rights to the.

Authors, heres how to protect your work with a trademark. Current ukipo practice is to accept trade mark applications for. So here are my top ten trademark and book title factoids for your reading pleasure. There are two types of owners title insurance policies certified by the american land title association the owners policy and the homeowners policy. In terms of using it in the title on your book cover, maybe be careful, because they may have a trademark over the image of the words font, capital letters, etc. In order to protect your book title, you cannot rely on. The registration process takes about 4 months if noone objects. An author can apply for a trademark for their books, if they offer a series of books under the same title. Discover what you can and cant register as a trade mark in the uk, whilst learning how to use the free web databases available to search existing trade marks.

Single book titles no longer protectable as trademarks. Understanding why cannot apply to names and titles. Using a trademarked name in a book title using a trademark in the title of a howto guide for the use of a software product or computer hardware would normally fall under nominative. Book titles and titles of single creative works one of the most frequently asked questions in our practice is whether book titles and other titles to single creative works such as a title of a music. You cannot trademark the name of a single creative work. The logic behind the legal principle that the title to a single creative work cannot function as a trademark is as follows. Trademarkr helping small businesses to protect their name. A trademark also written trade mark or trademark is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression which identifies products or services of a particular source. Copyright page samples you can copy and paste into your book. Trademark protection for literary titles of single works is unique in trademark law. The same general legal principles that apply to recycling of book titles hold true as well for recycling song titles and movie titles. You can also check the intellectual property offices online journal to find trade mark applications accepted in the last week.

A great title can contribute tremendously to a books success. In canada, however, its different and you can trademark book titles even if its just one book. Trademark basics trademark registration and advice. The arrangement of words in a book title cannot be trademarked.