Trademark and Fair Use May 25, 2008
Posted by Debbie Stafford in : Copyright , 1 comment so farLM_NET often has reoccurring topics on issues of Copyright. These posts are focused either on our role as school library media in teaching and informing students and teachers or questions about fair use, as we try to be role models.
Concerning copyright we all know the 4 rules of fair use and attempt to educate students and teachers about fair use, even when they are reluctant to hear that what they want to do is a copyright violation.
A recent LM_NET thread concerned use of trademarks specifically the use of the ALA READ logo in making posters to encourage reading. Many expressed amazement that a word could be trademarked. After following the debate I decided to do a little research. A disclaimer, my research is certainly not exhaustive and I have no legal training.
First, in considering what a trademark is and what can be trademarked I found the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office web site to be very helpful. There I found a definition - ‘A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs, that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others.” There were also pages about what trademarks do and why someone would need a trademark. This site also proved useful - Registering a Trademark.com
Basically, I believe that ALA registered the READ celebrity poster in order to protect that service both for ALA and for the celebrities who volunteer to pose.
In further searching I found reference to “fair use” of trademarks since we all use the word read daily, but I did not find a set of neat rules. Wikipedia lists these two rules From my admittedly limited research it would be my understanding that if I wanted to put something in the school’s parent newsletter encouraging students to READ over the summer that would be fair use. But putting a graphic in the newsletter mimicking an ALA READ poster without “license” from ALA would not.
Fortunately ALA does give librarians a way to use the READ trademark. You can buy the READ CD set and use any of the images, or you can go to the ALA store and order individual READ logo images. Then you can create your own READ celebrity posters and bookmarks.