The publishing world is becoming more dangerous for
authors. I belong to a Yahoo Group named
Romance Books R Us. We have a website,
blog, Twitter and Facebook Account.
The owner of Romance Books R Us started this group in 2010, but
recently an author named Adele Dubois was asked to cease and desist using the
name Adele by Sony Cooperation. Sony
sent a letter to Google telling them to remove all articles on Blogger by Adele
because her name infringed on the singer, Adele. Sony threatened Google with a lawsuit, so
they removed her articles. Eventually,
this ended up being solved because Adele was the real name of the author, Adele
Dubois.
Another author had a series using realtor, and had to use
something else because Realtor is a trademark.
I've gotten off track here, but now I'm going to tie back into the first
paragraph. Because of the lawsuits, the
owner of Romance Books R Us decided she'd better trademark the name Romance
Books R Us. After applying for the
trademark, she received an email from the lawyers for Baby's "R" Us and
Toy's "R" Us that she had 5 days to remove her site or face the
consequences of a lawsuit because R Us was their trademark.
At this time, I'm not sure how this is going to turn out,
but I'll keep you informed. This is
something that concerns anyone who has a business, and writing is a
business. It's getting late, and I just
hope I'm making sense.
Thank you for stopping by.
Have a lovely week, and I'll see you next Sunday.
Sandra K. Marshall
http://www.amazon.com/author/sandramarshall
13 comments:
I always love your post!
Thank you, KT. You're a sweetie.
Companies are so concerned about infringement these days. (insecurity?)Sheez Unfortunately it has become a sue happy world on top of everything. I think lawyers are to blame for a lot of that. (rolling eyes) deep down lawyers are good. The deeper the better.
amazing. simply amazing to consider how far the world has come. thanks for letting us know.
LOL GE, you sound like my hubby. He doesn't like lawyers either. Thanks for stopping by.
Louise, you just can't be too careful in today's world.
Let's just say that I can relate.
CC
Oh no, CC, I hope it didn't happen to you. Thank you for coming by.
If someone can't tell the different between the Yahoo group with your name, which if I'm not mistaken you have to be invited to use, and one of the other X' Xx STORES, brick and mortar and internet then something is seriously wrong with them
Seems there is something all the time. I'm so glad that things are smoothing out for Adele. Hopefully google will put everything back up.
On the R Us, I just don't know. Toys R Us is certainly not Romance R Us. People need a job, something to keep them busy so they don't have time to think up all this stuff.
Thanks, Lindsay. We'll just have to wait to see what happens. We may have to change the name of Romance Books R Us.
Thanks, Linda. I think Google has put Adele's articles back up just not when they were originally posted.
As far as Toys R Us they watch for people who try to get a trademark using the R Us, which is part of their trademark. The owner of Romance Books R Us is trying to get hold of their lawyers, so we'll just have to wait to see what evolves.
Oh my goodness!!! I'm speechless. Things are getting weirder and weirder. Now, how are Toys R Us going to be confused with Romance Books R Us?
That sounds absolutely insane! Thanks for keeping us posted, Sandy
Thanks, Nat. All of us are speechless.
It is insane, Zee. You're welcome.
Post a Comment