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Copyright and Trademark: Titles, Words & Short Phrases

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Copyright and Trademark: Titles, Words & Short Phrases by Josh Graubart

{4:12 minutes to read} It is a truism among intellectual property lawyers that no matter how often one may encounter discussion of a “copyrighted word” or a “copyrighted phrase”—and this notion appears frequently in media—copyright law generally does not protect titles, words, slogans or phrases.[1]

In the United States, the Code of Federal Regulations specifically lists “[w]ords and short phrases such as names, titles and slogans” as examples of works not subject to copyright, and directs the Copyright Office not to register them.[2] However, U.S. courts have occasionally suggested that copyright claims in short phrases might be viable in exceptional cases, provided that the phrase “exhibits sufficient creativity.”[3] Read more

What is Intellectual Property?

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{3:54 minutes to read} “Intellectual property” consists—as the name suggests—of “creations of the mind,” and more What is Intellectual Property? By Joshua Graubartspecifically, of commercially valuable aspects of those creations. [1]

As the name also suggests, “intellectual property” is a subcategory of “property.” Unlike, for example, real property (land) or chattel (other tangible property, such as a car or a horse), intellectual property is intangible: it can’t be seen or picked up, and it has no “natural” form or limits. Unlike land or livestock, it does not exist except to the extent it is created by law. Its boundaries, consequently, follow no “natural” form; rather, its boundaries are solely and precisely those described by law.

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