Writerpedia discussion

Hey, everyone. I Have a question that is driving me crazy! I have this new project going. I am writing a nonfiction book and I mention a brand name in the title and the body. Is this something I have to have permission from the trademark owner to do or can I get away with it since the way I use it is talking about a particular product, mentioning it as a product from the company, giving them full credit, etc.? I guess, in a way, my book could be considered a 40-page review of this product. What are the rules? Anyone know?

Any help is appreciated, thank you! :o)

Putting a brand name in the title is trouble from a trademarks standpoint.

The point of a trademark is to protect the owner of a trademark from having some other party make money off the reputation of the brand. By referring to a trademark in the title you'd unquestionably be trading on their brand. They could easily argue that sales of the book were driven by their brand name in the title. You would unquestionably need permission, which I think would be difficult to obtain.

Thank you. I didn't think of that. I guess I'll just leave out the brand then.

:o)

I second Andrew's advice. You do need permission to use a brand name. While corporations love to have people talk up their brands in a positive way in order to make more sales, they don't want any kind of negative talk, nor are they inclined to appreciate any sort of publicity that they can't control. Our sticky trademark & copyright laws in the U.S. are a result of corporations acquiring the rights of individuals.

Whoa! Hold the phone! My husband just pointed out that he has to read a book for college called The McDonaldization of Society by George Ritzer. This title, based on the subject of the book, would seem to be a negative reflection on McDonald's. Did the author get permission from McDonald's to use the name in the title? Might be worth contacting Ritzer to see what his process was. His official website is here: http://www.georgeritzer.com/

There may be a legal work-around.

Interestingly enough, my work is entirely complimentary to the product. That was why I didn't even think about it until my sis-in-law mentioned something about getting permission. I'll have to check out George Ritzer.

Thanks so much, Mary. And thank you, Andrew. You've both been very helpful. :o)

The McDonaldization of Society probably got away with it because intellectual property law is not supposed to stifle fair comment. If the subject of the book is the corporation, then obviously the book needs to address it by its name.

You do NOT need permission under this conditions:

1. If you are analyzing the trademarked content (i.e. impact of corporation).
2. If it is a satirical comment.


For example, if I wanted to write a book about Batman and the evolution of comics! DC couldn't do spit to stop me from publishing it.

or if I was writing a book called: Batman the Sucked Crusader! Unauthorized Biography! then proceeded to make it a comical farce, they likewise couldn't do spit to stop me (that is what Cracked and MAD do after all).

However, if I wanted to write:
Batman - the all new adventures! as a honest to god novel, I'd get my ass handed to me on a platter.


Just make sure you have a lawyer on call if you do one of the two above. They will certainly try to send you some nasty letters. I've handled people before on my own who've tried to screw with me, but it's always nice having a lawyer to handle them if it gets beyond your control.

Kevin wrote: "You do NOT need permission under this conditions:

1. If you are analyzing the trademarked content (i.e. impact of corporation).
2. If it is a satirical comment.


For example, if I wanted to write..."

Thank you, Kevin. :o)

you're welcome ^_^

:D

And just so you know, the intellectual property arena is full of bullies. You have to bully them back. I was recently on the opposite end of intellectual property what we were discussing - someone was trying to actually impersonate my business "Ninja Nezumi Productions, L.L.C."

Business impersonation is against the law.

But I have also referenced corporations for historical fact i.e. writing a historical fiction novel set in 1950s and a character see a product named "Crest with clorophil!" Nothing is said to support or debase the product, it's just a historical fact.

Well, that's admissible :) Just be careful Jaimey :D

Thanx so much. You're super helpful and I really appreciate the time you've taken to answer my question. :o)

By the way--now I'm going off on a tangent--I read your post about CreateSpace and I am sorry you are having so much trouble. I use them for my books and I have to say that it almost seems like there are no live people in the background. I am not too dissatisfied at this point but I'm not sure that will continue. And yes, the $10 per proof copy thing royally sux. At the very least, they could offer the media rate option and knock $3-4 off the shipping fee. I have had to purchase more than one for a couple of my books and no, I have not made that money back yet. But after that, the price per copy is better than anyone else I've found.

Off on another tangent: What is your business? (Ninja Nezumi Productions, LLC)

ty for your sympathies on createspace. I know I'm not alone in my troubles. I hope they alter their practices, especially so after Cafepress.com raised their base prices from $4 and $.02 per perfect press page up to $7 and $.03 per perfect press page. They are going to lose business big time.

I needed a corporation to protect the liability of my board game. My dad has collectively spent over $14,000 on this project with me in an attempt to patent my board game. I have 2 US Patents with Australia and Canada sewn up and in examination process.

So, with my L.L.C. I thought - WTH I might as well try to publish my books through Ninja Nezumi Productions!

I named it after a character I was going to create for a daily strip called Ninja Nezumi, but all he's become so far is a trademark symbol. It's an outline of his head, two ears and a nose with eyes. After some little shit in College tried to get me in trouble by claiming it was a phallic image, it drove me even more to make it a trademark symbol of my company.

It looks like a mouse head with japanese kanji on it, and this giggling little foul teenager tried to tell the teacher I was posting nasty pictures.

I sell some t-shirts with the image so you can look at it yourself.

http://www.cafepress.com/NinjaNezumi

Anyway so I figured out this awesome new idea on how to publish my stuff to the web - I use a native browsing viewing tool to allow the user to view an image of my book page, while preventing them from actually caching the images. Basically they have to screen shot to save the images.

So it's very difficult for people to file share (though they can do it). The books are free to the reader (meaning only a real jerk would try to rip me off), AND, it's paid for by advertising :D

So I'm all excited and everything. I've got a web manga, I've got the createspace.com thing going, my board game named Tora (which will make money to save tigers), and plans on web publishing while making it even more difficult for pirates to purposely hurt me.

I just hope I don't crash mentally on the stress of getting it all done!

I'd say the key question is, Is the use of someone else's trademark necessary to your book? I mean, if you're writing a book on the history of the Foobar Corporation, it's difficult to see how you could do that without using their name. (I suppose you could write round-about hints of who you were talking about.)

On the other hand, suppose in the course of a book you throw in a casual line like, "As Bob waited for Sally to show up, he sat listlessly in the restaurant sipping on a Coke." Assuming the fact that it's a Coke and not some other brand is not important to the story, I'd just say "... sipping on a cola."

Even if your use of a trademark does fit the legal exceptions, that doesn't stop the trademark owner from suing you and forcing you to pay big bucks to a lawyer defending yourself. Being right, winning in court, and coming out ahead in a legal battle are three very different things.