Book Titles Not Copyrightable

You can not copyright your name the title of your post or any short phrase that you use to identify a work.

Book titles not copyrightable. Copyrights cover works fixed in a tangible format but because titles are typically short they don t fall under copyright protection. Understanding why copyright cannot apply to names and titles. However a slogan can receive trademark protection as is the case in the example.

Nike s slogan just do it is not copyrightable. But you can trademark a title which may give you the protection you seek. But such a registration would not extend protection to any of the individual star names appearing therein.

So no you can t copyright a title to a book song or movie. Titles aren t considered intellectual property but are only short phrases which are not eligible to be copyrighted. Works in the public domain are not copyrightable.

The short answer is to simply say that names titles short phrases and also colours are not considered unique or substantial enough to be awarded copyright protection in their own right but as this is such a common question it is perhaps worth explaining the logic behind this. Book titles are among the list of things that can t be copyrighted. To qualify for copyright protection a work needs to possess a significant amount of original expression and while a significant amount of original expression isn t fully defined by hard and fast rules the courts have ruled that expressions as short as book titles do not qualify.

As others have said it is difficult to have a copyright in the title of a book because most titles are too short to be copyrightable. However once you start selling the book you might acquire a trademark in it provided it meets all the many requirements of a trademark. Facts news and research are not copyrightable.

The office will not register individual words or brief combina tions of words even if the word or short phrase is novel distinctive or lends itself to a play on words. Publishers of works such as a star registry may register a claim to copyright in the text of the volume or book containing the names the registry has assigned to stars and perhaps the compilation of data. The reason is that copyright is designed to protect works of creative authorship it is not designed to protect how that work is identified in the marketplace the same goes for people and places.