Literary titles - such as book or movie titles - fall in a gray area in U.S. law. For instance, although a book or movie is protected by copyright, its title isn't. Copyright simply doesn't cover titles.
And even if the title is distinctive, such as The 40-Year-Old Virgin, courts and the Trademark Office say it can't be registered as a trademark, even though distinctive words and slogans can be registered as trademarks in other contexts. There's an exception for series titles, such as Harry Potter, but that's of no help to single-work titles.
The rule against trademark registration purports to be absolute, and has been in place for at least 50 years. Nonetheless, I've developed ways to protect single-work movie titles using trademark registration -- effectively circumventing the long-established rule.
I've written a short article on the subject, in relatively plain English. It's the cover story in this month's Los Angeles Lawyer magazine. Click the link and check it out, or at least look at the picture on the cover and the amusing illustrations the magazine added.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Trademarking Movie Titles
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So, I want to name my band "Windtalkers" but that's the name of a movie. Am I allowed to name my band "Windtalkers"?
ReplyDeleteLook at all the Hollywood remakes where a producer is actually capitalizing on (1) someone else's title and (2) someone else's writing... completely legal... but about as close as you can get to ripping someone else's work. Most seasoned producer's know about this seemingly strange loop in the copyright laws. Copyright is not trademark though. If your band were to have a logo that closely resembled the movie logo, and if theirs is trademarked, you'd be better off to pick another logo but you could keep the name.
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