Can anyone help me? I want to copyright a title of a book I am writing. Can I copyright just a

[CTyankee]

title of something I haven't written yet? can anyone help me figure out how to get a copyright?

[hlthe2b]

1. How to Copyright a Book (Legal Zoom)

https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/how-to-copyright-a-book

[Hermit-The-Prog]

2. Write it down -- it's protected by copyright.

That's it.

ETA:

https://www.copyright.gov/title17/

[Baitball Blogger]

3. Copyrighting the TITLE may be problematic.

[euphorb]

4. You cannot copyright the title of a book.

When you begin to write the book, the contents are copyrighted automatically as soon as you write it down.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

6. Your scribbling on a post-it is copyright-protected.

Copyright begins when your work is "fixed in a tangible medium of expression and come within the subject matter of copyright".

https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap3.html

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. You cannot claim copyright on just a title

What Is Not Protected by Copyright?
Copyright does not protect
• Ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts, principles, or discoveries
• Works that are not fixed in a tangible form (such as a choreographic work that has not been
notated or recorded or an improvisational speech that has not been written down)
• Titles, names, short phrases, and slogans
• Familiar symbols or designs
• Mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, or coloring
• Mere listings of ingredients or contents
https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ01.pdf

[CTyankee]

8. How about private email? I have emailed it to my son and his wife for some ideas...

e.g. collaboration. We should start that shortly.

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. You want to copyright your email?

Do you think there's any chance your son and daughter-in-law will try to claim it as their own, or forward it to other people who will?

[CTyankee]

24. No, absolutely not. In fact my dtr in law is an editor at a publishing firm in NYC.

She will help me out. My son is a prosecutor at the Brooklyn DA's office.

[muriel_volestrangler]

26. An editor and a lawyer sound like the right people to advise you, not DU (nt)

[CTyankee]

19. I have written several sentences which will go into the Preface and saved it on My Documents.

Is that enough?

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. 'Several sentences' does sound more substantial than 'short phrases'

Has someone already tried to pass them off as their own, or benefit from them? What is getting you worried about copyright theft at such an early stage?

[CTyankee]

25. Well, I didn't want to infringe on some other writer's title. Or a song title.

[Foolacious]

28. You can't infringe on copyright of a title,...

... since titles can't be copyrighted. So no worries. But as someone else posted, once you have written/composed something in any tangible form whatsoever, it is copyrighted to you. Now, PROVING that without having registered your copyright might be slightly more difficult, but with timestamps on electronic files and emails, even that is no longer much of a problem.

[CTyankee]

27. I googled it and found it used in a hymn in a Lutheran hymn book.

It appears to be old, probably 19th century usage.

[muriel_volestrangler]

29. If you mean your title by 'it', it can't be copyrighted.

It's the 'several sentences' from your preface that potentially could be, but it seems a better idea to wait until you've written the whole thing before you worry. Unless you think it will leak out somehow.

[CTyankee]

30. This will take some time as much research will be needed. I have started that research.

I'd like to copyright it right away, tho. I don't want to get to the day that I get the production started and find out a big OOPS.

[Cartoonist]

7. Color

I read once that Heidelberg was able to copyright that pale green that they paint their machines with.

[Mike 03]

9. No, sadly. Titles aren't considered intellectual property, and also

you see many books with the same title.

(And sometimes movies too).

[CTyankee]

10. well, the word is beautiful but all that common so my book title might have a shot at exclusivity...

[Mike 03]

14. One thing you could do is write a treatment and copyright that,

or write it as a treatment for a screenplay, or a screenplay and register it with the Writers Guild of America. Your ultimate goal is to write a book, but you might be able to get some protection if your story is unique, and be able to present something in court if you were ripped off. You can do a "rush screenplay" that is not really meant to be perfect but to provide the general outline of scenes, with the word you want to protect. It's sort of a crap shoot whether this would hold up in court, but it someone actually steals it from you, you could prove it was yours first.

That's a bit convoluted, but it will buy you some legal protection, especially if this is an idea you are going to share, pitch or send out to publishers.

[lame54]

11. In songs you can't copyright a title - not sure about books

[librechik]

12. My understanding is that you can't copyright a title. You can copyright an entire work.

titles are too ubiquitous. Everyone must be able to access those. But attached to a book, it is copyrighted along with the rest of the text.

[packman]

13. Yah, remember

When Trump tried to copyright the phrase, "You're fired" from the show he was on - The Apprentice. Also, Google (I think) tried to copyright "You've got e-mail" and was turned down.

I would write a few short paragraphs of your book and THEN give it a title. Seems your claim to the title would have more weight then.

[CTyankee]

21. I'm on it, packman!

[Happy Hoosier]

15. If it's unique enough, you can trademark it. NT

[Dr. Strange]

17. Don't get cocky kid!

How an author trademarking the word “cocky” turned the romance novel industry inside out

[obamanut2012]

18. You cannot trademark or copyright titles

[pnwest]

20. BUT - a couple of things you can do to dissuade others from using it are

to buy the domain names, and create Instagram and Facebook pages with the book's name and just put "Pending release" or something. Most people search for those things now so they can have unique domains, so if you already have the domain locked down, others will try to figure out a different title.

[CTyankee]

22. OK. My daughter in law can help me with that. Thanks!