roget's copyright

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Eussie

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I am completing a new thesaurus. I read *somewhere* that the name 'Roget's' can be used by anyone as the name has expired. Does anyone have any idea about this?
 

Eussie

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Jaws said:
The copyright has expired. The trademark rights in the name have not.

Hi Jaws:

Thanks for your reply. I'm very much a novice though, could you explain the difference (i.e. can I use the name or not if the trademark rights are still in effect?)

Thanks

Eussie
 

aka eraser

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If you're concerned about using the name in your title, chances are it will be changed to whatever the pub wants anyway. And any respectable publisher's legal beagles will determine if the word Roget can be used. If your concern is about using excerpts straight from Roget's in your own work I guess you'll want that legal opinion before you get to the submitting stage.
 

Jamesaritchie

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Copyright

Eussie said:
Hi Jaws:

Thanks for your reply. I'm very much a novice though, could you explain the difference (i.e. can I use the name or not if the trademark rights are still in effect?)

Thanks

Eussie

Copyright is protection of a writer's words. You can't copyright a name, or any phrase under four words.

Trademark is a business registration. You can trademak a word, a letter, a photo, darned near anything. The trademark means you use this to represent your business. It also means no one else can use it to represent their business. "Aspirin" is a generic term, and anyone can use it. "Bayer," Anacin," etc. are not generic terms, and are names these companies have trademarked to use as product identifiers for their business.

You can't use anything that has been trademarked to represent any business venture of your own.
 
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