Cinema Law: What's In a Title?

by Jeremiah Reynolds | Published May 25, 2009

Welcome to “Cinema Law,” MovieMaker.com’s all-new blog where you ask the questions of our resident team of legal experts and, each week, they’ll provide the answers to your production queries. Have a burning question yourself? E-mail it to and your question may just be on next week’s blog! Cinema Law is presented as general information only and is not meant to take the place of professional legal advice.

Q: I made a short film in 1983 and now a feature film is being made with the same title. The storylines are not the same but nobody checked with me about using my title. What options do I have? To whom would I file a complaint? Would it be with the studio making the film? The director? Or the screenwriter? Do I even have a case for suit?

A: A title can make a major difference in the success or failure of motion picture, and it certainly makes sense that you would attempt to seek legal protection for your movie title. Surprisingly, such protection can often be difficult to obtain, as movie titles cannot be copyrighted. Thus, a film owner must look to trademark law as the source of legal protection for his or her movie title, but obtaining such protection is not automatic.

In general, a person can seek to register a trademark with the Patent and Trademark Office ("PTO"). Once a registration is obtained from the PTO, the trademark is presumed to be valid and the registrant is presumed to be the exclusive owner of the trademark. But the PTO will not register a single movie title as a trademark. To obtain a registration from the PTO, there must be at least one sequel for the movie to qualify as a series. In your case, you cannot obtain a registration from the PTO for your movie title since you’ve only made a single short film.

Courts have not been as rigid in their treatment of legal protection for movie titles. Courts have said that a movie title can qualify for trademark protection if the owner can prove that the title has obtained “secondary meaning.” To prove that a movie title has secondary meaning, an owner would need to show that, in the minds of the public, the movie title has become associated with a single source. In your case, this would mean that you would have to prove that the public associates the title of your movie with you. If your movie was a short film in 1983 that was not a major success, this would be nearly impossible to prove. Thus, the bad news is that it is highly unlikely that you have a case for a lawsuit.

Jeremiah Reynolds is an associate at Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump & Aldisert, a high-profile, L.A.-based entertainment litigation firm, and specializes in complex business litigation, particularly upon entertainment related litigation and contractual disputes. Reynolds’ experience includes disputes relating to motion picture and television distribution rights, merchandising and licensing rights, profit participation and other accounting issues, contractual disputes and intellectual property disputes. In 2006 and 2007, Reynolds was named a “2006 and 2007 Southern California Rising Star” by the publishers of Los Angeles Magazine. He is a cum laude graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles (B.A., 1997) and received his J.D. from the University of Southern California in 2002.

The answers to legal questions provided by the lawyers of Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump & Aldisert, LLP ("KWIKA") are for general education and information purposes only, and are not legal advice or legal opinions. The information provided in the articles is not intended to create a lawyer-client relationship between KWIKA and you. The opinions expressed in the postings are the opinions of the authors and do not reflect the opinions of KWIKA, its employees or agents.

SHARE THIS STORY

COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT

Comment by aziz man on 6/03/09 at 9:03 pm

i am writing to you from saudi arabia, can i copyright my treatment or screenplay in the usa , how and where ?

Comment by famous wonders on 6/30/09 at 11:22 am

I didn’t know that a movie title couldn’t be copyrighted. I thought that every part of the movie was to be under a copyright

Comment by Stillbirth on 8/14/09 at 9:20 am

Yeah, I heard about this a year ago that movie titles are subject to copyright, but I just wonder if this copyrighting is only valid for a certain country or in the other counties as well.

Comment by Wedding Butterfly on 8/14/09 at 11:29 am

Thanks for the post. I have a question. I know this is about movies and everything but what about in the music industry. I have a band with a major label then we found out that there’s another band with the same name as ours, and we know for a fact we were first! Can we do something about it, legally? I just thought I’d try asking, or can you at least point me to the right direction. Thank you.

Comment by Dicas Budapeste on 11/06/09 at 3:39 pm

It seems very difficult to copyright a movie title indeed. I have done my research, and making a sequel and registering a trademark with the Patent and Trademark Office seems to be the only valid way of getting this through.

Comment by Ethan Brown on 2/20/10 at 9:15 am

I haven’t seen a movie with similar title, unless it’s a sequel of course it comes with numbers. I totally agree with you, there can be a great effect if the previous movie created a positive result before.

Comment by Sam@roofmaintenance on 3/01/10 at 5:29 am

I suggest you to sue the director of the movie. He is the one who directs everything. How can someone use the same title. That’s really bad.
Sam@roofmaintenance

Comment by Ann@Wii softmod on 3/04/10 at 7:36 pm

I don’t see anything wrong if somebody is using the same title. I’ve seen some movies like that one before and everything seems to be fine. It didn’t actually cause so much trouble when they launched the movie.

Comment by rickey on 8/21/10 at 1:37 am

Thanks for sharing this application here. I needed it for my project. The reason i liked it because it is very simple and easy as you told above. I admire you for making very simple and useful application.

Comment by rickey on 8/21/10 at 1:38 am

I appreciate everything you have added to my knowledge base.Admiring the time and effort you put into your blog and detailed information you offer.Thanks.
Regards
Poker Site

Comment by morevisitor on 9/20/10 at 5:26 pm

Thanks for a nice share you have given to us with such an large collection of information. Great work you have done by sharing them to all. simply superb. chocolate delivery

Comment by rickeygupta123 on 9/24/10 at 5:15 am

I love seeing websites that understand the value of providing a quality resource for free.
Appliance repair

Comment by rickeygupta123 on 10/05/10 at 4:18 pm

Interesting post and thanks for sharing. Some things in here I have not thought about before.Thanks for making such
a cool post which is really very well written.will be referring a lot of friends about this.Keep blogging

blÃckpatroner

Comment by rickeygupta123 on 10/05/10 at 4:18 pm

blÃckpatroner

Comment by Advertising Resume on 11/24/10 at 6:42 am

Thanks this post really opened my eyes. it is not only eye opening rather very beneficial for the people those who want to do something good in his life .

Comment by Dancos on 12/05/10 at 6:56 pm

I don`t think copyright is so valuable here , because many will take the title and change it just a little.

poker videos

Comment by April bishop on 12/16/10 at 2:32 pm

Hello,
Nice article for anyone who need plan for wedding. I like it very much. Thank you for writing such type article. I will arrange a wedding ceremony very soon and this site helped me.
Thanks

Comment by Frisco Plumber on 2/06/11 at 3:03 pm

Great information. I got lucky and found your site from a random Google search. Fortunately for me, this topic just happens to be something that I’ve been trying to find more info on for research purpose. Keep us the great and thanks a lot.

Comment by plumbing Toronto on 2/11/11 at 6:33 am

Thanks for the interesting article. I didn’t know that a movie title couldn’t be copyrighted. Glad i cam across your blog!

Comment by Poker Guru on 2/11/11 at 8:36 am

this blog have very informative data i am so glad read this blog thanks for update me

Comment by movie torrents on 4/06/11 at 4:35 am

Thanks for making sucha cool post which is really very well written.I’ve seen some movies like that one before and everything seems to be fine. Thanks for the interesting article.

Comment by dharmendra on 12/16/11 at 7:43 am