Legal or Illegal

ramsaur

ramsaur

Veteran
I have a film I want to do later on (no clue when) title of film is "The Seventh Floor" - My question is if there is another film out there titled "The Seventh Floor" is it legal for me to make my film? My thoughts are yes, only if it's not the same story. What do you say?

Edit: If I wanted to go big with this film; get money, distributor, try for theatrical and/or DVD release.

Other Seventh Floor Movies from IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111133
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061668

And another question related to some of this in this post:
Post 4
 
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lots of films with the same title out there... If the similarities end at the title, you would likely be fine. but dont' take my word for it.

later,
Jason
 
You can't copyright titles, so you're fine. The only issue is when a title includes a word somebody has trademarked, either as a product or a fictional thing they invented, like if your title included the word Jedi, or McDonald's.
 
Batutta said:
You can't copyright titles, so you're fine. The only issue is when a title includes a word somebody has trademarked, either as a product or a fictional thing they invented, like if your title included the word Jedi, or McDonald's.
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Hmm glad you said that. Since in the script it has a few movie titles and I think it says Batman somewhere. I might get in trouble for stuff like that.
 
As long at it's not a tradmarked or registered slogan.
I have Moddin' Art protected. Not only is the content copyrighted, the name is registered.
You can indeed register titles.
HEck Gene Simmons copyrighted "OJ" just because so many use it inplace of orange juice. Dude gets paid everytime someone uses it. My friend is the "Sunday Sunday Sunday!" dude. Same thing.
 
grinner said:
HEck Gene Simmons copyrighted "OJ" just because so many use it inplace of orange juice. Dude gets paid everytime someone uses it.
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Uh-huh :huh: Got some kind of evidence for that claim?


ramsaur said:
I have a film I want to do later on (no clue when) title of film is "The Seventh Floor" - My question is if there is another film out there titled "The Seventh Floor" is it legal for me to make my film?
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It is not illegal for you to make your film and call it that, however, that doesn't mean you won't get a cease and desist letter and possibly get sued. If the other production company convinces others in a court of law that you're making money off of their fame and/or fooling the consumer into believing that your movie is theirs, you can still lose.

There was once a little film called "The Blade" about a post apocalyptic guitarist named Buddy. There was another little film starring Wesley Snipes called "Blade" being made at the same time. Lawyers stepped in, sent a C&D letter (I think that's all they did) and the small film renamed itself Six-String Samurai
 
Whoa whoa whoa, I'm no lawyer, but let's get something straight:

Things that aren't illegal or copyright:

- To have the same title as another film
- To have a similar or close to the same story as another film (can't copyright an idea)
- To say OJ or... anything for that matter. You can have a movie that mentions batman every two seconds... doesn't matter. It's legal, you can't copyright speech/talking.

Things that AREN'T allowed:

- SHOWING any copyrighted material, like posters, logos, clips from movies, etc. I think the only thing that may be exempt is fonts, but I think font designers are trying to change that, not 100% sure. It would be really silly if they copyrighted font designs.
- SINGING or PLAYING music that is copyrighted, like Happy Birthday. You gotta pay AOL Time Warner (I think they still own the rights) every time you sing that song in your movie or at a restaurant (ever noticed how they never sing happy b-day?)


So I highly doubt that Gene Simmons owns the copyright to the word OJ... as that is an impossibility. I may as well copyright the word "I" or "a" or "boobies", cause I would get a lot of money.

I think Gene Simmons said it as a joke and people took it at face value not knowing how impossible that was. Or maybe he did it on family jewels just as one of his many skits on the show. It may have been a reference to cases like the Happy birthday song.
 
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All I can tell ya is if someone were to use Moddin' Art as a title, I'd make a lot of money. It's why I paid so much money to protect it. I pitch it to networks who love to steal unprotected material... and will in a heartbeat unless it is protected.
Ask your copyright atty... that's the bottom line.
 
You can register/pay for company names to keep others from using it, that's something else. It's not about using it in a film/book/etc

Doesn't apply to any other titles.

Then there's trademarks, which is in the marketplace. Maybe he trademarked the term OJ so no one could use it, or maybe so he could sell the use of it somehow. But trademark shouldn't apply to saying it in a movie. I really don't think so...

hmmm... gotta do more research

EDIT:

Found something - "You have a right to include the trademark in your film as long as the trademark or the product bearing the trademark is used as it was intended to be used without any consequences of its use being abnormal or out of the ordinary. Therefore, as long as a filmmaker is using a trademark or logo as it was intended to be used, and do not disparage or tarnish the trademark or logo in your film, you may include such trademark or logo without asking permission to do so."

http://ezinearticles.com/?Trademarks-In-Film---Best-Practices&id=1954364

So maybe you can trademark certain things, like titles of films to keep others from using the title, but it depends on if they even bothered to trademark it. I'm sure something like 7th floor is so vague that they wouldn't bother, especially if there are two films with that title.
 
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grinner said:
All I can tell ya is if someone were to use Moddin' Art as a title, I'd make a lot of money. It's why I paid so much money to protect it. I pitch it to networks who love to steal unprotected material... and will in a heartbeat unless it is protected.
Ask your copyright atty... that's the bottom line.
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Then you must have a registered trademark with the title "Moddin' Art."

A copyright will not protect a title the same way as a trademark registration.

And trademarks need to be continually protected. In other words, a trademark is only as good as you are offering a commercial product or service under that name. If you stop selling the product, you will no longer own the trademark.
 
Yes. I have a registered trademark. That's what I'm saying. You should check with your copyright atty.
 
grinner said:
As long at it's not a tradmarked or registered slogan.
I have Moddin' Art protected. Not only is the content copyrighted, the name is registered.
You can indeed register titles.
HEck Gene Simmons copyrighted "OJ" just because so many use it inplace of orange juice. Dude gets paid everytime someone uses it. My friend is the "Sunday Sunday Sunday!" dude. Same thing.
Click to expand...

Registering a trademark is a valid strategy for dissuading others from using your title, however, there are caveats. You can't just register every movie title as a trademark, and then expect to be able to sue anyone that uses your "trademark" in a movie title. You need to actually use the trademark in the sale of goods and services.

http://troygould.com/layouts/50/graphics/handel_la_lawyer.pdf

To the original poster I would say, yes, you can use that title if you choose. However, it's better if you can find something original.
 
I believe it was OJ Simpson that once tried to copyright "OJ" after the murder trial. Not sure if he was successful.
 
ddp said:
I believe it was OJ Simpson that once tried to copyright "OJ" after the murder trial. Not sure if he was successful.
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If you look in the trademark office records, there are several registrations for "OJ."
 
I'm using a title Hitchcock used in one of his films, totally legal, but I'm not copying his story or anywhere near it, well, okay, there is a thief involved, but it's not the same story.

Titles are fine to redo, just make sure it 'fits' your story.
 
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