Legal Question in Intellectual Property in New York

Re: Publishing/Copyright question

Hi,

assuming that the references are (1) incidental, (2) positive and (3) presented in the way they appear in the public case-sensitive wise, it should be ok for you to use those 20 brand names without permission.

Re: Publishing/Copyright question

You certainly have some leeway in referring to brands in your book without the trademark holders' permissions in reliance on "fair use" provisions of the Lanham Act for the purpose of description or identification. However, a lot depends on the context in which the names of the marks are used in your work, so without reviewing the specifics of your work it is difficult to give you a definite answer.

Here are some questions that need to be asked after reviewing your work:

1. Is the use of the mark incidental ?

2. Is the use contributing to the dilution of the mark ?

3. Is the use of the mark disparaging?

4. Does your use turn the mark into a noun or verb or does it turn the mark into the plural form ?

To be on a safe side, you may want to include a disclaimer and a list of each of the trademarks used in the work along with the name of their owners on the copyright notice page of your work. The disclaimer should state at a minimum the name of the owners of the marks, that the marks are being used without permission, and that the publication of the marks is not authorized by, associated with or sponsored by the mark owners.

You should know that there is insurance for authors and publishers to protect against potential infringement claims.

In addition, quoting copy from advertisements, could raise copyright infringement issues.

If you have further questions, give me a call or email me. I represent both publishers and authors in the traditional and online media.

Please note that the above reply is of the informational nature only, is not legal advice and should not be relied upon as such.