Discussion:
What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?MD
I am having a party and I have a mailing list. Yesterday I received a call from the woman who is a founder of the magazine thats called women in the life she told me that she saw my emails i have been sending out and i cant use the words "Women in the Life" because its copyrighted. I told her that it was a phrase and that no where in my emails does it reference her company and a phrase cannot be copyrighted. this is the part of the email that shes referring to:
NAME OF MY PROMOTION GROUP presents
Baltimore’s 1st Saturday Party for Women in the Life
DON’T MISS OUT on the hottest 1st Saturday party.
This is a once a month EVENT!
how can you take a short phrase and say that no one else can use it. i thought i could use it and even after our conversation i looked online at the us copyright and us trademarkwebsites and the magazine company is trademarked and copyrighted. The only reason that I am being so stern and not wanting to change it immediately is because the phrase "in the life" refers to a gay lifestyle and I do not want my emails to be sent to other people and they get the wrong idea as to what type of event this is... Granted I could change it to ladies in the life instead of women in the life but imo women just sounds classy/ tasteful
Looking at the us copyright website I found this
NAMES, TITLES, AND SHORT PHRASES NOT PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT
Names, titles, and short phrases or expressions are not subject to copyright protection. Even if a name, title, or short phrase is novel or distinctive or if it lends itself to a play on words, it cannot be protected by copyright. The Copyright Office cannot register claims to exclusive rights in brief combinations of words such as:
Names of products or services
Names of businesses, organizations, or groups (including the name of a group of performers)
Names of pseudonyms of individuals (including pen name or stage name)
Titles of works
Catchwords, catchphrases, mottoes, slogans, or short advertising expressions
Mere listings of ingredients, as in recipes, labels, or formulas. When a recipe or formula is accompanied by explanation or directions, the text directions may be copyrightable, but the recipe or formula itself remains uncopyrightable.
my friend advised me that i can change my email to state:
Baltimore’s 1st Saturday party for women in the life.
See what I have done? I made "women in the life" part of a sentence instead of part of a statement. There is no law against that.
Hopefully someone can provide me some assistance with this and I do apologize for the length I wanted this to be as clear as I can make it.
Answer:
As you know from your research, such a phrase cannot be protected by copyright -- it can, however, be protected by trademark. Whether or not the way you are using the phrase is infringing on their trademark (asusming they have one) is a question that is dependent on all of the facts of the situation.
However, given what you have written, if the phrase is trademarked, then the trademark holder may have a valid claim for infringement.
If you don't want to risk getting sued for infringement, you really have two choices. One, you can rephrase the phrase, and two, you can speak with a local attorney experienced in trademarks who can opine on whether or not you are infringing on the other party's trademark.