Author has trademarked common word; threatening other authors over its use

I mean, what if the woman (like me) writes full on steam and works in a school! a Primary School, FGS!

This - along with the fact I wrote a book about adopting my kids, is why I have a pen name.

 

Thanks for sharing. Interesting. If he’s not doing this pro bono, just that memo would have been expensive. And even if it is pro bono there are costs that have to be paid throughout litigation. Last case I was involved in, our costs (not attorneys fees but out of pocket expenses for the client) were around $280k. They won’t be nearly that high here, I suspect, but could still be in the tens of thousands of dollars.

 

Is anyone breaking any law by figuring out who some is behind a pen name?

 

No, but I think Faleena is using it as an example of her lying about her anonymity so she could be lying in the court papers. Because she says that Crescent wanted anonymity for her and her family, but posted images of her and her family under a pen name on social media, how can that be anonymous?

You do realise what this means?? This means that everyone who has two media profiles, a "real one" and an "author one" will be found out and forced to close one of them down.

Millions will be lost in advertising money that FB and the likes earn for adverts we do under pen names ... and a boatload of people will disappear from social media, which means their sales will drop, and they may stop writing ...

It's like the apocalypse of literature!

 

It's not uncommon for attorneys to have production credits for various projects in music and film--usually when they've financed a project or been legal counsel on a project. Production credits can be obtained for putting up money for a project (which would be my guess in this case), doing actual production tasks, or even bartered as a favor.

edited for punctuation for clarity

 

It's the ramifications of their identities appearing publicly that are scary. It opens the floodgates for Faleena's fans to stalk and harass the people who oppose Faleena. And there are definitely some out there who will. Fans = fantatics. I've been on the receiving end of that by a band's fans who didn't like what I wrote, and it's scary as hell. They don't stop at you. They go after your family as well. The people who do that are unbalanced and unpredictable, and security is expensive.

This. Pen names traditionally provided a buffer between an author's writing life and non-writing life that people in their non-writing life would disapprove of or not understand.

 

All true. Not sure what can be done about it, though, unless someone breaks a law, or does something else to give rise to a legal claim. And then you can only go after the illegal activity.

 

I know. Shhhhhh.

That’s the thing about having a pseudonym, if you want it for anonymity, you can’t have it linked to your real person. In every sense of the word, I lead two lives. A personal life and an author life and both are separated, even though both are me.

 

That's the part I think is crazy. This is a legal issue. I hope Faleena's lawsuit fails, and I'm glad that the RWA is footing the legal fees for the people she's suing, but stoning her over it is kind of fucked up.

If she wins in court, hate the game, not the player. Rule of law. Everyone else will start trying to trademark common words as well, probably including people hating on her for what she's doing right now. No one has ever stopped unpopular legal change through harassment.

Then, Faleena's fans going after people in the same way, what would that even accomplish? Even if they 100% destroyed these people's careers (which they won't), it will do nothing to change mob behavior when the next taboo is broken by some other author.

 

Trademark, not copyright.

 

thanks, fixed it

 

That's the whole thing about fans who do this. They're not logical and don't think forward. They act on pure emotion, so all they're focused on is revenge.

Yep. Interestingly, a lot of them are moms. So, legalities aside, sometimes letting them know there's a good chance they'll end up in jail or lose their children makes them stop.

edited for clarity

 

Just seen on my newsfeed, she’s been denied the temporary restraining order

 

They're not easy to get to begin with, and I'm not surprised it was denied here given the shaky ground she's on to begin with. The only real argument she had was that if she prevails, monetary damages might be insufficient, and even that isn't a great argument here.

 

Not sure if this link will work, to the Fusdy Librarian.
https://www.thefussylibrarian.com/n...cocky-trademark-dispute#.WxGLzFj6fTg.facebook

 

Link not working for me.

ETA: Link works now.

 

Is there a way to watch this train wreck... I would love to watch.

 

WOW!!!! that's how low she thinks of her readers. LOL.

 

She may or may not think that of her readers, but a couple of relevant factors in whether there is a likelihood confusion in a trademark infringement case is the sophistication of the consumer in a particular area (more sophisticated=less likely to be confused by similar marks) and the amount of care taken in making a purchase (consumers spend more time and thought on a major purchase than impulse buys, so the former are less likely to involve confusion). So it's a legal argument to make.

Still, not a good look.

 

Well that fell apart quickly for Miss Hopkins. LOL... let's hope the domino's keep falling.