I've been doing some research recently on self-publishing. There's a large amount of information available on the internet about most aspects, but one area that seems under-represented is the use of trademarks.
A breif foray into the web offered a lot of information about celebrities, and from what I read it seems that celebrities are increasingly trademarking their names. I checked the UK listings and found that Lady Gaga, J.K. Rowling and, uh, Alan Titchmarsh (I kid you not!) are all registered trademarks.
Aside from Rowling's trademark entry I couldn't find out much about trademarking your name/pseudonym relates to authors, particularly those using distinctive/unique pen-names (as I intend to). So I'm wondering...
1. Should a pen-name be registered as a trademark?
2. Would doing so prevent others from writing under the same name? Would there be any benefit to it at all?
3. Have I completely lost the plot, and instead of doing something useful am I just worrying over something insignificant?
I realise that, for an unestablished author self-publishing, the infringement issues that global celebrities face when there name is used by others are incredibly unlikely to be an issue at all for me, but I'm trying to be thorough and haven't (as yet) got delusions of grandeur.
A breif foray into the web offered a lot of information about celebrities, and from what I read it seems that celebrities are increasingly trademarking their names. I checked the UK listings and found that Lady Gaga, J.K. Rowling and, uh, Alan Titchmarsh (I kid you not!) are all registered trademarks.
Aside from Rowling's trademark entry I couldn't find out much about trademarking your name/pseudonym relates to authors, particularly those using distinctive/unique pen-names (as I intend to). So I'm wondering...
1. Should a pen-name be registered as a trademark?
2. Would doing so prevent others from writing under the same name? Would there be any benefit to it at all?
3. Have I completely lost the plot, and instead of doing something useful am I just worrying over something insignificant?
I realise that, for an unestablished author self-publishing, the infringement issues that global celebrities face when there name is used by others are incredibly unlikely to be an issue at all for me, but I'm trying to be thorough and haven't (as yet) got delusions of grandeur.
