Book Titles Not Copyrightable

But such a registration would not extend protection to any of the individual star names appearing therein.

Book titles not copyrightable. The copyright office doesn t want titles to be restricted to one book. So no you can t copyright a title to a book song or movie. Copyrights cover works fixed in a tangible format but because titles are typically short they don t fall under copyright protection.

There may be other works in which the title may be equally usable and appropriate. 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. Names titles short phrases words and short phrases such as names titles and slogans are uncopyrightable because they contain an insufficient amount of authorship.

Facts news and research are not copyrightable. Works in the public domain are not copyrightable. Titles names short phrases and slogans are not 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. 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. 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.

Book titles are among the list of things that can t be copyrighted. Understanding why copyright cannot apply to names and titles. Nike s slogan just do it is not copyrightable.

But you can trademark a title which may give you the protection you seek. 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. 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.