A Slice of Orange

Taglines, Copyrights, and Trademarks

September 30, 2019 by A Slice of Orange in category The Extra Squeeze by The Extra Squeeze Team tagged as copyrights, taglines, trademarks

Dear Extra Squeeze Team, I have a tagline I use on all my novels, do I need to get a copyright?

Robin Blakely

PR/Business Development coach for writers and artists; CEO, Creative Center of America; member, Forbes Coaches Council.

Great question. The idea that you are asking this sort of question suggests that you are in the business of writing–not every writer is. Business is important to writers, but often they do not like to think about the business side of creativity. You are thinking about business and that indicates that you have a good chance at making significant money from your creative craft. Part of being in business is protecting your intellectual properties. Before you decide how to best protect your tagline, you need to talk to a lawyer who handles this kind of specialized legal business and can explain the difference between copyrights, trademarks, and patents. Before you talk to that qualified lawyer, you need to gather your information together. The process of gathering your information together will help you find the path you should follow. When you find a potential lawyer, that legal professional will want for you to provide a solid overview of your business concern.

Find the answers to the following questions and you will have a better meet-and-greet with the lawyer during your first consultation.

Your lawyer will ask you these questions:

What is your exact tagline?
Exactly how and when have you used the tagline so far?
In an initial search, when you google your tagline, does any result come up that indicates a potential existing conflict?
What are your plans to use the tagline in the future?
How will you routinely protect your tagline in the future?

Here are questions for you to ask the lawyer:

What is your hourly rate?
How much will this process cost?
How long will this take?
How many other authors have you worked with?
What exactly will I receive when you are finished with your part?
What do I have to do to make your part possible?
Jumping ahead, what are best practices to protect my tagline?
How will you help me routinely protect my tagline?

Rebecca Forster

USA Today Bestselling author of 35 books, including the Witness series and the new Finn O’Brien series.

This is above my pay grade. You might want to ask an entertainment lawyer. The person I asked suggested it might be a trademark situation.

Jenny Jensen

Developmental editor who has worked for twenty plus years with new and established authors of both fiction and non-fiction, traditional and indie.

US copyright law does not cover tag lines. Short phrases or sentences are not considered original creative work as that would run the risk of actually copyrighting a phrase or word common in the English language. Just imagine what you’d have to pay Nike every time you told your kids to ‘just do it’. And how would anyone enforce that anyway? Maybe big brother has that many eyes but individuals don’t.

You can Trade Mark a tag line. Marketers often do. Be sure you can live with a TM beside your tag line. It’s not something I’ve ever seen but I think it would strike me as officious and send an odd message. Writing is a creative effort as well as a business effort but I don’t want to see overt signs of business in my reading for pleasure choices. Besides, a Trade Mark requires mountains of paperwork and the near impossibility of enforcement.

Online Workshop with Kathryn Jane October 2019 Online Class from MCRW

Music City Romance Writers Presents: One month of information and hands-on support while you learn fantastic techniques that will serve you for years to come.

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Get the inside scoop on what a reader wants/expects/needs from about a hundred and fifty words on the back of your book. Not self-publishing? No worries, use your great story description in a query letter instead! Show off your writing chops in a very special way. Give the agent you’re querying concrete evidence that you know how to sell your book.

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Austen and Michaelmas

Quarter Days

I’m back with another Quarter Days’ post about Michaelmas

True Janeites (fans of Jane Austen) might be interested in a fun website I stumbled across while researching a story I have in the works.

The “Chronology of Pride and Prejudice, according to MacKinnon and Chapman” takes us through the detailed timeline of P&P’s events. (Oh, to be such a renowned author that fans prepare a chronology for your novel.) I don’t know about my fellow A Slice of Orange authors, but I always have to check and double-check that I have the story days correct.

Mr. Bingley moves in

Pride and Prejudice begins when Mr. Bingley takes the lease to Netherfield Manor and moves in.

As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, Quarter Days might be occasions for feasting and parties, but they also had a commercial significance. Contracts were entered into or terminated, property was leased, and rents and wages were paid. Thus, as the story begins, a wealthy bachelor in need of a wife kicks off the story by becoming a neighbor of Mr. Bennet, a man with five unmarried daughters.

A later period than the Regency (note the beard).

And Mr. Bingley has been kind enough to bring along an even richer bachelor friend! Well of course; late summer/early autumn was also the start of hunting season, when a man might welcome parties of friends to tramp through his fields and shoot birds. Mr. Bingley would want to show off his new domain to his influential friend, Mr. Darcy.

The Glorious Twelfth

Hunting season started on the Glorious Twelfth of August, after the social and parliamentary season ended. Presumably farmers had finished the harvest, so the crops were safe from hordes of hunters.

Bird season began a bit later, in September running through October. Hunting in Britain was very much dominated by the elites, even during periods of economic downturn and food scarcity. Ownership of weapons and even dogs was restricted, and penalties for poaching might include transportation. (See my post about this topic.)

Autumn was prime house party season also because families had shipped off their young males to boarding school in time for the Michaelmas term. No young boys would be running about distracting the shooters or worse, accidentally shooting themselves in the foot. They’d be back home though for the next Quarter Day, Christmas, which is when I’ll return to A Slice of Orange. See you then!

For more about Michaelmas, take a look at my earlier posts: Michaelmas Goose, and A Michaelmas Menu.

Yearning by Neetu


 Yearning
  
 I glisten in tears 
 like an April dawn,
  
 covered in dew
 like blades of grass,
  
 whispering notes
 like softly falling raindrops,
  
 I call your name 
 like one who is lost –
  
 listen achingly for the sound
 of your answering call.
  
 © Neetu Malik

Spotlight on Debra H. Goldstein

Debra Goldstein | Jann Says . . . | A Slice of Orange

Judge Debra H. Goldstein is the author of Kensington’s new Sarah Blair cozy mystery series, which debuted with One Taste Too Many on December 18, 2018. She also wrote Should Have Played Poker and 2012 IPPY Award winning Maze in Blue. Her newest release is another Sarah Blair cozy mystery, Two Bites Too Many.

Her short stories, including Anthony and Agatha nominated “The Night They Burned Ms. Dixie’s Place,” have appeared in numerous periodicals and anthologies including Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Black Cat Mystery Magazine, and Mystery Weekly.

Debra served on the national boards of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America. She is a past president of Sisters in Crime’s Guppy Chapter and is the president of the Southeast Chapter of Mystery Writers of America.

Find out more about Debra

Website
Facebook
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Jan Ryan’s Interview with Debra

Excerpt from Two Bites Too Many by Debra H. Goldstein

a cat and a dog looking at a glass of liquid

The rising decibel of the mutterings in the room indicated the natives were getting restless. Her mother had joked that nothing could start without Lance, but it wasn’t like Maybelle to keep people waiting.

Sarah checked her phone to see if she had a message from her mother.

None.

Commotion near the door used by the council members caught Sarah’s attention. Bailey, the loan officer, stood in the doorway. This time he wasn’t burdened down with a pile of papers when he scurried into the room toward the dais. If it was possible, Sarah thought his face was even paler than before. Although he went straight to Anne Hightower, who sat erectly next to Lance’s empty chair, instead of quite facing Anne, Bailey was intently scanning the audience. He froze when his gaze met Sarah’s.

“It’s Mr. Knowlton. He’s dead!”

Not sure if she’d heard right, Sarah maintained an unbroken stare with Bailey. Only when he repeated “he’s dead” and added “your mother” did she break the linkage of their gazes to push her way out of her row and the auditorium . . .

Some Books by Debra H. Goldstein