Movie Title Copyright

[Joe D'Arcy]

I am in preproduction for an indie feature where the English title was used in a Bollywood Production in 2009. The story is not similar in any way to The Bollywood film. The (indie) film title is also the title of the feature audio track. Research I have done on this states that in most cases ( except in rare cases where a trademark has been registered) a film title cannot be copyrighted unless it is a multiple title film such as Harry Potter etc.

According to Los Angeles Lawyer, Jonathan Handel, The Trademark Office has stated flatly, “The title of a single creative work is not registrable on the Principal Register or the Supplemental Register.”
See link:
http://troygould.com/layouts/50/graphics/handel_la_lawyer.pdf

Can anyone shed any more light on the legalities of film title rights.

Joe

 

[Adam Eden]

If a movie is called "love story" and you want to use the same name. call it "Joe D'arcy's Love Story". Obviously put your name in a very small font and have the heading large.

No one can really do anything about this unless they are a huge company like Sony etc.

Since you are in australia, register the name at IPAUSTRALIA.GOV.AU so you at least have Australian copyright. You are suppose to do this for every country, most people dont.

 

[Joe D'Arcy]

Thanks Adam. I'll look up IPAUSTRALIA.

 

[ericyoung]

There have been two, not that old, Hollywood movies called Crash that I recall, but not on release at the same time.

Of course, it's never really in any producer's interest to have a film with good prospects have a name that could easily be confused with another where their theatrical and aftermarket DVD sales could be impacted (well unless maybe you're trying to release crappy direct to DVD cheapo versions of a story with a similar name to a recent hit in order to boost sales or fool people into buying!)

 

[Terry VerHaar]

I believe one cannot copyright a movie title. That is probably why there have been movies of the same name over the years. In some cases, the names can be trademarked but I believe even this is somewhat difficult. I think a little Googling could turn up some information that could be helpful.

 

[Erik Bien]

At least in the US, you cannot copyright a title.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Can't comment about Australia, but like Erik points out, can't do it in the USA. However, you can register trademarks and incorporate them into titles... Just sayin' Typically we see that with some of the big guys out there. A simplistic, but great, example is Disney and how everything is Disney's this or Disney's that. Adam's example with the "Joe D'Arcy's Love Story" is another good example of a popular approach to uniquely identify.