Have you trademarked your author name?

[ElaineB]

(I’m putting this here because it’s only tangentially related to AI. Mods can move if they feel otherwise.)

AI Made Me Want to Trademark My Name. Here’s How I Did It.

This is something that never occurred to me, but I found it intriguing. Has anyone done it? Planning to? I figure I’m not well known enough for an AI to bother with, but once stealing becomes automated, they might sweep up everyone or randomly. And as a nobody, I can’t afford to lose sales.

I was editing my third novel, Finding Imogene, on August 7, 2023, when the news broke that publishing-industry guru and nonfiction author Jane Friedman’s name had been stolen and plastered across AI-generated books on Amazon and Goodreads. To add insult to injury, Amazon wouldn’t take the shoddy books down because “Jane Friedman” was not a registered US trademark. It took a series of public posts by Friedman and interviews with worldwide outlets such as BBC and The Guardian before the fraudulent titles were removed.

She was not alone. Earlier that summer, psychological thriller author Kiersten Modglin had a similar experience, but Modglin’s name was trademarked, so the vendor immediately removed the bogus books.

My takeaway from Jane Friedman’s and Kiersten Modglin’s experiences? I needed to get a trademark for my author name, Teri Case.

The rest are the steps she took (without hiring a lawyer).

 

[Brigid Barry]

There are two Dan Browns and I don't know many authors who have trademarked their names. Doing a quick search I did see it's fairly common for performers though, which was interesting.

I'll look more into this and see what I come up with.

ETA: So far it's how-to blog posts but nothing from places like Victoria Strauss/Writer Beware or writing places.

 

[ElaineB]

There are two Dan Browns

That would seem like an interesting complication. One of the steps is searching the trademark database. Dan Brown does not seem to have trademarked his name, but did Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, which seems to be the TV series (and not the book?). Only other "Dan Brown" is an LLC of clothing.

Oh, yeah, "Meryl Streep" is owned by Mary Louise Streep. What a way to find real names for stars! (Hello, rabbit hole.)

 

[Elenitsa]

And what if there are other people who have this name legitimately, while for the writer is a pen name?
(I am just asking, I do not think I can do it legally in my country).

 

[BenPanced]

I wouldn't be able to as there's another author with the same name. His career began long before mine, so there'd be that mess to untangle, anyway. See also: Kylie (Kardashian) vs. Kylie (Minogue).

 

[Brigid Barry]

I did ask in my author group and no one there had done it either.

Is the case mentioned in the OP a one-off, or is it a big problem?