Legality of Multiple Movies with the Same Title?

K

Kevin McCallister

Well-known member
Hey Guys,

This is more of a personal conundrum than a pressing need, but I was curious if anyone knew the legalities behind making a movie that has the same title as a previous film.

For example, the film "Wanted" starring Angelina Jolie. IMDB lists 20 previous films or TV series with that exact title. Therefore, could I go out and make a film called "Wanted" without legal repercussions? It seems like a gray area, because obviously I couldn't go out and make a film called "Friday the 13th", but is that because that particular title is trademarked? And if it's an issue of trademark, how come "Friday the 13th" can be trademarked but not "Wanted"?

Obviously, I'm no legal expert, so I was just curious. I know when I went through the distribution process for "Plasterhead", I was required to obtain a Title Search, presumably for copyright reasons (and it was very expensive, over $800), but exactly why it was needed, I'm not sure.
 
I'm not a lawyer either, but I have looked into it:
1. You can't copyright a title. But you can't trade (pretend) that you are another movie to try and take advantage of it.
2. You can trademark the look of a title (the art direction), but not the title itself.
 
This is a question I'd like to see an answer for too. Many movies have the same title, sometimes several times over. So I'm pretty sure any of us could make a film called "Wanted". But could I legally make a movie named "Gone With The Wind", "Star Wars The Phantom Menace" or "Citizen Kane"?

Where's the legal line there and how is it drawn?
 
Well

Well

Names are not copyrightable, that is true, you can basically call your film whatever you want, but there are some limits. When it comes to really recognizable brand entities like Star Wars, it would be ruled that there is significant possibility for consumer confusion, and that you were trying to piggyback on the success of an established brand. That would be a no-no and you'd be rebuked.

But take the title Fix. First, I'm going to say anyone who titles their film that is kind of an idiot, no disrespect to my friend Brian who in fact directed a short named that. But you need to do your homework. If there are like a million films with that name, it's just stupid, really stupid. My other friend, Bryan, did the same thing with The Orphan. Now there's some other indie film out called Fix, and also on the festival circuit at the same time as Brian's film Fix, there was another short Fix. It's ridiculous. It is NOT an original title.

Take my title, The Devil's Matchmaker, not only a great title but totally unique. Not to brag about it, but you have to put some time and effort into the title selection process. It's such an important part of marketing! Most screenwriting books talk about that too.

You don't have to worry about common titles especially though, like Fix, The Orphan, Wanted, etc.
 
Trademarking a title

Trademarking a title

L.A. attorney Jonathan Handel wrote a very informative piece on this for the April 2008 edition of Los Angeles Lawyer magazine. Here is a link to his blog and in the blog there is a 7 page PDF you can download for free giving more details. In a nutshell there are loopholes which can give protection to a movie title.

http://digitalmedialaw.blogspot.com/2008/04/trademarking-movie-titles.html

Most certainly even if you eventually came out ahead I'd imagine you'd have hordes of attorneys after you if you tried to use even single word titles (or focus on the main word title prefaced by the words a, an, or the) for your film like Wicked, Psycho, The Matrix, Alien, Blade. Also, just try to use a "unique" single word title or character name like such as Bladerunner, Scarface, Popeye, Conan, Goodfellas or Benji. Even if your real life name was Conan O'Brien, Benji Lawrence or Scarface Smith you'd be in deep and expensive legal troubles.
 
Televista said:
L.A. attorney Jonathan Handel wrote a very informative piece on this for the April 2008 edition of Los Angeles Lawyer magazine. Here is a link to his blog and in the blog there is a 7 page PDF you can download for free giving more details. In a nutshell there are loopholes which can give protection to a movie title.

http://digitalmedialaw.blogspot.com/2008/04/trademarking-movie-titles.html

Most certainly even if you eventually came out ahead I'd imagine you'd have hordes of attorneys after you if you tried to use even single word titles (or focus on the main word title prefaced by the words a, an, or the) for your film like Wicked, Psycho, The Matrix, Alien, Blade. Also, just try to use a "unique" single word title or character name like such as Bladerunner, Scarface, Popeye, Conan, Goodfellas or Benji. Even if your real life name was Conan O'Brien, Benji Lawrence or Scarface Smith you'd be in deep and expensive legal troubles.
Click to expand...

Happens all the time ... two examples would be "Crash" by Davis Cronenberg with David Spader and Holly Hunter (1996) and "Crash" by Paul Haggis with Deborah Bullock (2004).
 
Kevin McCallister said:
Hey Guys,

This is more of a personal conundrum than a pressing need, but I was curious if anyone knew the legalities behind making a movie that has the same title as a previous film.
Click to expand...

In the US, names can be reused. However, you may run into trademarks, and as such, have protection for the trademark owner.

Other countries may be different. For example, it is my understanding that in Germany a film, or book, title must be unique.

In the case of "Austin Powers in Goldmember", MGM sued Newline because of the proximity of the 'spy spoof' to 'bond movies' (like those are to be taken seriously...). The result was putting Austin Power first in the title, and a few other consessions...

I don't know what would have happened if the name had nothing to do with spys, swavy scottsmen who can always find time for a shakened martini, and a penchant for killer gadgetry...

But it would probably be enough to put most people off, and most lawyers on the case...

If you'd rather pay for lawyering rather than production value... go for it...
 
"Wages of Sin" ran against a horror film of the same name that came out the same year. To this day some people seem to think I made that film. At one point their production crew tried to steal our IMDB page (I like the think it was by accident, but the director spot said clear as day "Nathyn Brendan Masters"). Will "Wage of Sin" couldn't be copyrighted it's annoying when this kind of thing happens.

-Nate
 
There are really 2 parts to this question.

There is what is "legal." Meaning what the law allows.

Then there is what the "industry" allows.

You may have a legal title, but if you want any sort of real distribution it must pass through the MPAA's "Title Registration Bureau." Titles can be worth millions of dollars in "Hollywood" and there is a process that decides who gets to name their film what.

Here are a couple good articles on the subject:

http://www.marklitwak.com/faq/titles.html

http://www.allbusiness.com/services/legal-services/4468289-1.html
 
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