Trademark Shenanigans: Weighing In On #Cockygate

From Writer Beware: If you’re a writer, and you hang out on Twitter and Facebook, you’ve probably heard about #cockygate. If you haven’t….An author named Faleena Hopkins has registered two separate trademarks for the word “cocky”, which is used in all the titles of her multi-book romance series. One of the trademarks is a design mark (the word “cocky” … Read more

Romance author trademarks the word ‘cocky,’ sending other romance writers into an uproar

From The National Post: Here is a list of just some popular romance novel titles: Cocky Bastard, Cocky Chef, Cocky Biker, Cocky Fiancé, Cocky Cage Fighter, Cocky Client, Her Cocky Doctors, Mr. Cocky, My Cocky Cowboy, The Cocky Thief and, my personal favourite, simply, Cocky. Notice a pattern? Yes, romance literature loves a rugged, arrogant heartthrob. And a double-entendre. … Read more

Freedom to Publish Advocacy: Authors Guild Wins ‘CockyGate’ Court Ruling

From Publishing Perspectives: The Authors Guild reports that it has won a court ruling that means writers can continue to sell books with titles that use the word cocky despite a trademark registration owned by author Faleena Hopkins for a romance book series titled “Cocky.” The Authors Guild and the Romance Writers of America (RWA) … Read more

Trademarks?

PG has stumbled across occasional tweets by indie authors mentioning trademarks for their titles. Is he wrong in assuming the massive backlash against an author who tried this a couple of weeks ago has not demonstrated that this is not a good idea?  

Trademark Cock-up

PG has received several questions about a female author named Faleena Hopkins who has apparently obtained a U.S. trademark registration for the word, “Cocky” as used in connection with romance novels. Evidently, Ms. Hopkins has been threatening other authors with claims of trademark infringement for their use of the word, Cocky, in titles and as … Read more

A Feud in Wolf-Kink Erotica Raises a Deep Legal Question

From The New York Times: Addison Cain was living in Kyoto, volunteering at a shrine and studying indigenous Japanese religion. She was supposed to be working on a scholarly book about her research, but started writing intensely erotic Batman fan fiction instead. It happened almost by accident. It was 2012, and Ms. Cain — who … Read more

Discoverability: Draft2Digital

From Draft2Digital: For sure, 2018 had a few bumps in the road. Amazon shook up the industry first by a shift to favoring paid advertising over organic search results, then with policy changes that led to decreased revenue and even canceled accounts, with effectively no recourse for affected authors. Other interesting turns included dubious trademark claims, … Read more

To cash in on Kindle Unlimited, a cabal of authors gamed Amazon’s algorithm

From The Verge: On June 4th, a group of lawyers shuffled into a federal court in Manhattan to argue over two trademark registrations. The day’s hearing was the culmination of months of internet drama — furious blog posts, Twitter hashtags, YouTube videos, claims of doxxing, and death threats. The lawyers carried with them full-color exhibits … Read more