Q: Can I register the copyright on a books title?
Continuing our series of Q&A’s, we continue on the theme of titles, slogans, and logos and where that fits between copyright and trademarks.
One question we are often asked is that of registering an authors book’s title.
I must tell you that titles do not fall under copyright protection under law.
HOWEVER, if you are intending your book to be the first of a series of books under this title, i.e. if you’re intending to create a brand from your books, you could be able to trademark it. I’m thinking here of the kind of series of books like the “Chicken Soup” series by Mark Victor Hansen & Jack Canfield. Other series of fictional books are created and sold of course; under the Star Wars and Star Trek brands for example.
Once you establish a book series under your title, the title can acquire a secondary use as a brand for your books, effectively the trademark for your products.
In that event, you can simply use the “TM” symbol against it.
The “TM” mark indicates a trademark and, as you’re probably aware, functions like the “©” copyright symbol, in that it is notice to others that this is a brand, identifiable to the product’s owner, that they’re using it to sell their merchandise, and others shouldn’t try and pass off or sell work/merchandise using that title. It’s unofficial, and while not carrying the weight of the official “®” trademark symbol you get having registered with the UK’s Intellectual Property Office (which we got for our company name duly noted®), it is nevertheless universally recognised.
Once you look for it in the everyday world, you’ll notice the TM mark everywhere, for titles, names and logos.
Certain popular authors’ characters even have the TM symbol next to them. Clive Cussler’s “Dirk Pitt” character is one name I can think of. Harry Potter to; not just as a character name, but as a brand as that name is always in the Harry Potter books titles. Spiderman creator Stan Lee trademarked and licensed his own name, and Tom Cruise won a case against a website using his name to sell unrelated goods. So it is possible you can make good use of a trademark to help you in the fight against unauthorised/unlicenced usage.
Tags: are titles names and logos protected under copyright, book title copyright, copyright names, copyright titles, copyright what, name copyright
Branding / Trademarking, FAQs | julian 20 January, 2010
7 Comments to “Q: Can I register the copyright on a books title?”
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By Joshua Brown, 23 July, 2010 @ 3:52 pm
intellectual property is not really respected in most countries in asia where piracy is so rampant.`;,
By julian, 25 July, 2010 @ 6:14 pm
Hi Joshua
I appreciate your feelings. At the same time it’s a sweeping comment you make and perhaps a mite generalising; tarring all asian countries with the same infringing brush. This is not to say your opinion isn’t well founded. I’ve just been reading in The Economist this week (24th – 30th July 2010) about academic fraud and plagiarism being rampant in China (”Replicating Success” P.51). The article makes clear China’s difficulty in getting beyond manufacturing and into knowledge-based business is being stymied by this large-scale problem, which brings into question China’s credibility in the academic field, and deterring foreign scientist from the country for fear of being embroiled in the plagiarism scandals.
You can read the full article on The Economist site: http://www.economist.com/node/16646212?story_id=16646212
The fact is this attitude is obviously self-harming to the Chinese as a nation and only fosters distrust of it. It’s a lesson that speaks for itself.
By Arthritis Remedies `, 12 October, 2010 @ 5:45 am
intellectual property is not observed by poor countries in the third world, in fact they like piracy”::
By Acne Medications Information %0B, 16 December, 2010 @ 5:45 am
in China, they do not respect intellectual property at all. too many software and movie pirates out there ;.”
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