Is it possible to copyright a book title?

Yzabel Level 1

January 20, 2015, 7:41 pm

6

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I have the perfect title for a book but no idea what the story is going to be about. Is it possible to copyright the book title even before I have written the book?

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Beverly

Beverly

Book titles are too short to copyright but you can always trademark it and give yourself some protection from content theft. Though, trademarks are not easy to obtain. You will have to prove that your title is extra-ordinarily unique before it will be granted that status.

12 years ago

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Yonah

Yonah

I'm pretty sure you can only copyright an entire story (even a short story), not just a title. Just try to keep the title to yourself so your idea is not stolen. Don't broadcast it on Facebook or forums and others just won't know until you are ready.

12 years ago

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Wayne

Wayne

Also, if you could copyright a title, that would lock up many good titles so they could never be used. What if they allowed a title to be copyrighted and then the person holding copyright never bothered to write the book with that title?

12 years ago

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Corzhens

Corzhens

From what I know, copyrights are for manuscripts only like book material, article and song lyrics. For titles, it cannot be covered by copyright because it is very short and logically can be used by other people without the intention of infringing on the copyright. In other words, it is not appropriate to copyright a word, a phrase or even a sentence. Just to add, copyrights are now covered by WIPO - World Intellectual Property Office. They have affiliated IPO in most countries where you can seek help in copyrighting. What they advise writers is to have proof of the time that you wrote the material. No need for formal copyrighting anymore.

9 years ago

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royhaines

royhaines

Hi guys, this is actually quite an interesting topic, and in such cases, I always use one educational platform thanks to which I can find any information, such as loyalty in the odyssey, or much more. They also do excellent reviews on books and related materials. Perhaps this will be useful to you.

7 years ago

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