Copyright Talk

You can’t copyright a name. You can’t copyright a title.

But you might be able to trademark them.

An interesting little article the other day in the Financial Times touches on the lucrative estates of some well-known authors, like Ian Fleming and Kingsley Amis. Copyright in the books ends at some point, of course, but the estates have found a way to extend their “business” by trademarking aspects of the works.

Writing franchises are not new (Nancy Drew was created with the intent of using multiple authors, and L. Frank Baum’s world of Oz lived on under the pen of several different authors after LFB’s death), but this business form is increasingly being run by estates. I find the concept of a business owned by no living person to be one of those conceptually slippery concepts like “how big is the universe?” or “where were we before we were born?” But it’s perfectly legit and fairly common, although having an estate run a business until it can be properly transferred to the heirs is entirely different than having an estate actively hanging on to the business for the purpose of enhancing - or creating - it is a little different.

But I digress. Copyright protects the actual expression of a creative work. A book is protected by copyright. Trademark protects the association of specific “marks” with a specific product. Names, titles, slogans, even colors can be part of a “mark” that is used to identify a specific product. Trademarks that are registered cannot be used by someone else IF, and only if, that use would be confusing to a consumer. In other words, a registered trademark CAN be used, without permission, by someone else, if that use does not harm the business of the company or person that holds the trademark registration. This is why searching for “AAA Plumbing” on google will result in dozens of companies with that name all over the company. Those companies don’t compete for the same business, as most plumbing companies have a limited geographic service area. But if you search in Houston, Texas for AAA Plumbing you will find only one compnay with that name.

Literary estates are using copyright to try and maintain some control, and income of course, over the works of the deceased after the works themselves have passed into the public domain. I think this is far more dangerous to the public good than any piracy issue we’re currently grappling with. On the other hand, if it’s limited to mostly mystery series and spy thrillers, who really cares?