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Author Threatens To Sue Book Reviewers Over Trademark Infringement
Nate the greatest writes "Do you know what is crazier than sending DMCA notices to a site like Lendink which doesn't host any content? It's when an author threatens to sue book reviewers over trademarks. Jazan Wild, a comics creator, is sending out threatening emails to any and all book blogs who review a recently published book called Carnival of Souls. The book was written by Melissa Marr, and it happens to use a title which Jazan Wild owns the registered trademark. He's also suing the publisher for trademark infringement, but HarperCollins is laughing it off. The book blog Bookalicious posted the email they got from Jazan. Needless to say they did not take down the review."
If DMCA can be applied to kitchen, maybe a chef who trademarked "salt" would sue anyone who dare to use salt in their cooking
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
I feel bad for the guy. He's been using the mark since 2004 for his business with his wife. That's their brand. Sending the C&D's to review sites was a mistake, but these obviously aren't going out from a lawyers office... he's trying to get it solved himself while Harper Collins gives him the finger.
I generally don't like C&D's, but I don't like a huge publisher just screwing this guy and his wife because they can, either.
the universe already owns the rights.
might as well be orchestrated to drive the sales of the new book... in these times, everything is possible
His comic was put out in 2006, but the title/phrase has been in use since at least 1962.
He will have to show that people would somehow confuse this book, with his comic, which would be fairly hard.
The problem is in granting him trademark ownership of the phrase "Carnival of Souls" in the first place. He's just acting to defend it against any infringement as any other trademark owner would. Of course threatening reviewers is ridiculous but the publisher is going to have to pay him off. No way can they put out a book out with the same title as an existing trademark using for comics/graphic novels etc. Someone in Harper Collins legal department should get fired.
But I would agree to a patent on TYPING ALL CAPITALS.
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will only talk about patent trials, copyright trielas and related counter-trials. /. ! (aka SlashDotBang)
Which will make the site boring (and sued by almost all comment publishers).
Please, Moderators and meta-Moderators, quit from letting that crap to be published.
We need the ol' good
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
Jazan holds the trademark over "Carnival of Souls", and he has a legal obligation to legally defend it or lose it.
It may seem silly to sue review sites, but the legal duty of a trademark holder is to actively defend illegitimate use of the trademark or risk dilution.
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
If you think that by using caps lock you can get me to do what you want... Well, that's where you're right. But - and I am only saying that because I care - there's a lot of decaffeinated brands on the market that are just as tasty as the real thing.
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
Now /. will be getting a DMCA notice too.
He has not (and I think cannot) trademarked a comic title. He has trademarked a trademark for sources of downloadable media content. From a read of the grant, this does not cover books or reviews. He cannot landgrab his trademark to cover areas outside its applicability. Much as I personally dislike HarperCollins, I suspect that the response of their lawyers will be (correctly) the same as in the famous Arkell v Pressdram.
The USPTO search should be compulsory reading before commenting on these issues. It quickly shows whether someone has a case, may have a case, or doesn't understand how trademarks work. IANAL, this does not constitute legal advice or opinion etc., but in this case I suspect he falls into my last class.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
The author's take on this is further down in the comment section of Bookalicious. Quoting the key parts:
I want you to understand something. We contacted Ms. Marr and Harper Collins, way back in June and asked them to please respect our trademark. (...). My wife and I have built our company Carnival Comics over the last 10 years. In that time, we invested endless hours and tons of money building our brands. We have been very blessed. Carnival Of Souls, our series was the number 1 ebook on Blackberry for over a year. It was featured in the LA Times. (...)
So we protected our time and money and brand by registering a trademark for CARNIVAL OF SOULS. I started using the mark in commerce, way back in 2004. I applied for registration in 2009. and the USPTO granted me a mark.
The person you should be mad at is Harper Collins, who themselves own trademarks for book series. This is a big company, looking at someones lifetime of work and just taking it. We begged them to do the right thing. I had hoped Mrs. Marr would stand up for the rights of trademark owners, but she did not. Would you be angry at J.K. Rowling for stopping someone from putting out a HARRY POTTER series? She has a trademark as well.
See my point? I am not doing anything but trying to save my series from an out and out attack by a billion dollar corporation that feels they are above the law. I knew that if they released the Marr book, I would be the bad guy, for trying to defend my trademark. But what else can I do? Would J.K. sit back while someone else released another HARRY POTTER series. I think if you look at the facts in the case, you will see, that Harper Collins, should have not released a book and series, with a mark that they knew, was already out there.
Please, review my books - paste my weird artwork everywhere and quote me til Armageddon, just please, review my books.... http://sites.google.com/site/wistertown/
The headline implies that an author is suing the reviewers of his own book.
Capitalization nazi, not punctuation nazi. And apparently also a semantics nazi.
Nazi should be capitalized.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
And apparently also a semantics nazi.
Wouldn't being a semantics nazi make you an anti-semantic?
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Carnival of Souls is surely prior art!
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
Unfortunately these days it is not needless to say this...
Surely I can't be the first to notice this? HarperCollins couldn't have paid for publicity like this ...
Don't know who modded you as flamebait, but clearly didn't read the summary either
Reading comprehension. It's a skill you should learn.
He's not stopping reviews of HIS work. He's stopping reviews of someone else's work, because the Book's name infringes on his TradeMark.
The use of the word "Carnival" is a registered trademark of the Puddingebola Corporation. The website Slashdot, hereafter referred to as "Slashdot" or "/." has infringed on this trademark by posting the word "Carnival" in reference to a book which has been reviewed on another website. We request that Slashdot remove the word and replace it with another word, such as "Onion" or "Tomato" or "Insane."
It would just make you demand that everybody recognise your right to impose semantics on everybody. Or perhaps Symantec. This is our last territorial demand on your computer! Install Norton or the Tigers roll at dawn!
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
I read Carnival of Souls. It was alright, I guess.
Sue me.
See my post above. The trademark applicability is very restricted (and does not seem to include books, or reviews of books.)
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055830/ which is from 1962. It's a terrific film BTW.
On y va, qui mal y pense!
I read the Harper Collins filing. This author owns the trademark and is perfectly justified (in fact, bound to), and it's very clear that Harper Collins has knowingly and willfully infringed. More power to him.
probably related to the tone of his reply. had he said "the person suing is not the author of the book, they simply own a trademark of which they believe the book and anything related - e.g. reviews of the book infringe upon." he probably would have been upmodded.
in the world of argument facts are informative & insults detract from your point.
i spent five minutes thinking and all i got was this crappy sig
As for online reviews, they certainly aren't included in the scope because (a) they aren't made of paper and (b) they are not multimedia.
Oddly the class also includes paper knives. And duplicators. But that does help to show what the framers of the section were thinking about.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
He seems to be trying to extend the scope of Section 16 to titles, rather than trademarks in the way of businesses that produce paper. Scope creep - it's the enemy of progress.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Not according to the tome of all irrefutable wisdom that is Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punctuation and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalization.
They describe two distinctly different concepts.
You are free - invited even - to correct me if I'm wrong.
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It's a fantastic book, possibly the best I have never read.
I just wanted to let you all know that.
Carnival of Souls...Carnival of Souls...Carnival of Souls.
Not the shitty one by Jazan Wild, but the GREAT one by Melissa Marr.
By the way, I have a book coming out titled, "Jazan Wild".
You are welcome on my lawn.
Anyone else read the MTG is Turing complete post? When the machine creates a new 2/2 Ally token under Alex's control, four things trigger: Bob's Noxious Ghoul, Cathy's Aether Flash, Denzil's Carnival of Souls, I guess WoTC should get in line for a lawsuit.
We've secretly replaced the Enterprise's Dylithium Crystals with Foldgers Crystals. Let's see if they notice!
I drank what? -- Socrates
so it's going nowhere fast?
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
Here is a link all of his wares on Amazon. Feel free to review crap on him. Hit the greedy bully fuck where it hurts... the wallet. http://www.amazon.com/JAZAN-WILD/e/B006GFY0LS/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_2
said the guy with UID > 2e+6
Gal, sir!
"Because the first will be last!" said someone that got killed at once!
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
I respectfully disagree. "Nazi" has become a generic term, like "aspirin" or "hell" (in fact it's nearly as common as punctuation at this point, as Godwin observed).
Whoever owns the trademark for "nazi" will have to send out C&Ds if they want to prevent that, though they'd probably have to change it up a bit -- Microsoft Nazi(tm)*, anyone?
* (/. is stripping out the "tm" symbol from my post.)
I respectfully disagree. "Nazi" has become a generic term, like "aspirin" or "hell"
The hitler you say!
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Do you know how much money promotion costs? How hard it is for anyone to notice a new project? And here is Jazan Wild giving out free promotion for anything with that title! I certainly wouldn't have known about Melissa Marr's book any other way.
Keep up the stellar work, Jazan Wild. I'm sure it's getting you the results you're after.
Don't know who modded you as flamebait, but clearly didn't read the summary either
Calling someone an idiot is flamebait. Even if is dumb as a post.
Something seems to be the words in this thread.
However, with this idiot the only review id give is that he's an idiot and don't buy his books. And i would be sure EVERYONE hears about it.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
His comic was put out in 2006, but the title/phrase has been in use since at least 1962. Porno izle daha önce okumadnz Sex Hikayeleri
Thanks for a very informative and historical analysis of trademark
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
You're right, and I previewed it! I'd noticed in others' comments and thought they were being hasty, but after seeing this comment, I think there may be a new slashbug. The last sentence should read "Even if he is dumb as a post."
Free Martian Whores!
How TF is this downmodded? It's relevant to the discussion, and contains legitimate references. Even if the AC is NOT Wild... Seriously, you would think people who understand creation would be defending this man. How would you feel if I took something you had spent years creating, something you poured your life and energy into, and made something similar and then stole all the "thunder" without having done any of the work involved? This is NOT some patent trolling company. This is one man, and his life's work. You should all be ashamed.
I have the hiccups.
Say that to my face! Seriously, it's not like "oh, I'm going to sue you because I spilled some hot coffee on myself"... it's like "oh hey, you stole the name of my series for your series, oh, and it's about the same thing too" ... Why don't you go create something, and then have someone rip it off?
I have the hiccups.
You are one of the few people on here who seem to get the facts right. And you expressed them very well! People just seem to want to slam people for the sake of slamming them. They don't actually read what the issue is, and then make dumb comments. I ask then, who is the real idiot? The one with a legitimate issue, or the one who makes an uneducated romper room remark? I know the correct answer.
Yeah, because that's a completely original title. You cannot expect a well used title to hold up in court under trademark claims. Just because you have been granted a trademark does not mean that it cannot be challenged in court. Seeing as how there are many, many examples of this title being used to the point of cliche, I would imagine if he had his day in court he would be laughed out of it. This guy is also suing a network for using what he considers similar subject matter on episode of a television show. Harper Collins is not stealing his work, not reprinting his books without his permission, and not publishing a book with the same title that steals material directly from the graphic novel. Maybe I should trademark "the road" or "fire in the sky" or "the garden of eden." How about "Lost Souls"?? If I can come up with titles as original as that I should totally have a right to sue anyone that would dare use a title that I obviously ripped off from something else with THE SAME EXACT TITLE. I mean god! The same title! How dare she commit such theft of his intellectual property! She is going to make millions while he isn't according to his sob story and he's getting ripped off because he stole the title first? I mean if you read his statement, he makes it out like they completely ripped his material and reused it. Note how he acknowledges that the title has been used in the past, but note the tone of how he feels he now owns it. Do you feel this is fair or how book titles should be dealt with? I mean what happens when everyone trademarks all the common phrases and words? Do book titles suddenly become "The Long and Winding Road to the Home on the Range under Silver Magnolias on Elm Street?" If you ask me, he's just butthurt that someone is more successful than him and has a similar theme going on. Maybe Tolkein estate should start suing everyone that writes fantasy, because you know, they are just ripping off Tolkein's intellectual property. Boy, all these needless and frivolous lawsuits must be costing this guy a lot of money.
zosxavius photography
The issue here is that he must defend his trademark to maintain it, and that this woman and HarperCollins are stealing a brand he's been building for years. It could just as easily happen to you, or me, or anyone else who creates anything.
I have the hiccups.
what about this?
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