Sheila from Circle of Seven Productions left a couple of comments on the old book trailer thread. It's in the February archives and i knew nobody would go back that far. i'm putting a link here so she can be heard -- she posted as anonymous, some of the last comments.
Book Trailer issue
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10 comments:
Interesting. I'm glad she apologized and that this has been settled. ;) I know it was an error on her part with what she claimed in the first email(s), but I think it had more to do with jumping the gun, so to speak.
Warm fuzzies. I love it when someone is grown up enough to admit they made a mistake. Good for her!
Okay, so what does this mean? That you still can't use the words "book trailer" when DESCRIBING your book trailer? LOL! Because again, contextually speaking, you were using it in a descriptive, non-title fashion.
Whatever the case, I still say the trademark is ridiculous. If it were a unique word like how people use Xerox or Hoover that would be one thing, but this still falls in the silly department for me.
Tanya
kelly, i found it interesting that she applied for the trademark and it was initially turned down.
alex: i have to give her credit for handling this pretty well.
tanya: yeah, i'm still confused about that.
and as far as her initial email to me -- i remember something like this happening when a local online paper started making prairie HO companion (damn, i wanted one of those!!) t-shirts and garisson keillor sent the paper a very similar letter with similar wording. i think the owners of the trademark have to constantly send these kinds of letters in order to simple prove that they are defending their trademark. pain in the butt.
oh, by pain in the butt i meant pain the butt for the person defending the trademark. ;)
I had to come back and thank Anne for having the integrity to let this thing end well between us.
And I appreciate those of you who are willing to allow me my mistake.
The trademark issue will certainly be a hard one for me and for my company. So far people have been very respectful, even if the disagree with our right to have the term trademarked. It speaks well of the character and integrity of authors...and readers.
Thank you again.
Sheila
Everyone makes mistakes. If they can be corrected in a civil and timely manner, usually no harm results. This appears to be the case in this situation.
Sheila, you did the right thing by making both a private and public apology. :)
I agree with jeff.
Anne,
A trademark on words any reasonable person would automatically use to describe something obvious, is always going to be challenged. However, it IS good that you could settle the situation amicably, but I'm still confused as to whether using the words BOOK TRAILER to describe a book trailer will get you into hot water.
Tanya
tanya, i'm still confused by that too.
even though I'm still baffled by the trademark, I can't help but be impressed by the way sheila was able to turn this around and land on her feet. if i see her at thrillerfest, she might have to endure a hug from me. :D
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