I keep getting more questions about trademarks for a book series.  A viewer asked me, “So can I have the same title for all of the books in a series, but then call them ‘volume one’ and ‘volume two’?” And the answer is yes, you can have the same title because remember, the title isn’t the trademark.

The title and the trademark can be completely different. We see this on the “Chicken Soup For The Soul” series. They have various titles, like, “Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul” and “Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Cancer Book” and many other titles. Sometimes the titles incorporate the words “Chicken Soup for the Soul” and sometimes the title is completely different, but the book jacket has the “Chicken Soup For The Soul” brand on it. So that is a good example of the various ways in which you can use the brand on your books. So yes, you can have volume one and volume two when you have two volumes.

Once you have more than one book, now you have a series, and a series is registrable as a trademark. It’s perfectly fine to have a series that you register as a trademark so long as you have two things: The number one thing you need is use on the books as a trademark. That means you need to be using the trademark and have it appear on the book or CD or whatever it is you’re making a series of. You have to have the trademark appear on the book and give the impression to the consumer that whatever it is, whatever logo or words or symbol you are using is actually a source identifier. A “source identifier” means that the word, phrase, or symbol is viewed by the consumer as identifying your company as the source of the goods and services. That is a rule that we have for all trademarks. The consumer has to view the mark that you’re trying to register as a source identifier.

This second thing that you have to know is that all the other usual rules apply. You can’t use an otherwise unregistrable trademark on a book series and say, “Well, I have a I have a trademark for my book series.” No, it has to be otherwise registrable, which means it can’t be descriptive, it can’t be generic, and it can’t be confusingly similar to a mark that someone else is already using. 

So as long as those things are all true, yes, you can register a volume one, volume two, volume three, along with your title of your book, if you’re using part of the book title as a trademark. If you’re unsure about whether you’re actually using your trademark as a trademark, as with all trademark and copyright questions, you should probably speak to a trademark and copyright attorney like me, Angela Langlotz. You can find me online at Trademark Doctor, and also on Facebook.

I have a huge video library on YouTube. Just go to YouTube and search Trademark Doctor, you will find me there. I love to answer viewer questions. If you have questions, stick them in the comments below. I’ll answer them on a future live video.

Contact Dallas, Texas trademark attorney Angela Langlotz today to get started on a trademark application for your valuable brand.