: Re: Are there copyright issues with a novella title if it's a famous line? If you use a line or phrase from a really famous poem that most can recite as a title for a novella, is it stealing?

@Berumen699

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If the poem is that famous, it's probably out of copyright. So you can pilfer that, as long as you don't get into trademark issues. Anything by Shakespeare or some other long-dead author is fair game. Traditional poems, like Mother Goose rhymes, would also be fair game.

However, famous old works like that present you with another problem: probably lots of authors have taken parts of those works' famous lines and used them as book titles. For example, you might think "Jacob Have I Loved" (from the Bible) would be a cool title, but you (probably) can't use it because somebody else already has, and that book is still under copyright. (I say "probably" because IANAL.) So, do a thorough search first.

Trademarks are tricky. It is difficult to trademark a common word for your sole use. (Consider the trademark problems that Apple had.) That is why companies often use non-standard spellings and made-up words. It is much easier to claim sole use on "Xerox" than it would be for "Copycat" or "Mimic." If a photocopier company liked the name "Copycat" they would probably trademark it as "CopyKat" or "KopyCat."

Why am I discussing that? Because "StarWars" is trademarked, but you could title a sci-fi book "Chronicles of the Delta Quadrant Star Wars." OTOH, that might be a bad idea, because somebody with deep enough pockets might destroy your book by threatening lawsuits against anyone distributing it. Even though legally you didn't do anything wrong, and you'd eventually prevail in court, you'd still be doomed. (Unless you could prove that the lawsuits were frivolous and harmful. Then your opponent's deep pockets would work in your favor. But do you want to write, or sue people?)

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