Trademark Trademark ?

[jirywyxoc]

I have an idea for a magazine title. I thought it was brilliant until the thought crossed my mind it might be using their trademark illegally. I got the idea from the popular college cheat books, "Cliff Notes".

My magazine is going to be a quick guide to businesses. I thought "Pitt Notes" sounded fun, with the black and yellow stripes on the cover. But those stripes are well known for Cliff Notes and the Dummy books and the play off words obviously comes from Cliff Notes.

It would be made to look like Cliff Notes. It's a business guide so being unrelated to study material, i was thinking I might be ok.

Is this considered "inspired by"?

I don't want to be shady at all, I just thought it was a fun play off of the idea of a cheat sheet. I feel like I see stuff like that all the time, so how is it illegal?

Thank you for any help.
Erica

 

[Michael Wechsler]

1. "Inspired by" is a terrible way to move forward, in my humble opinion. It admits that you are aware of another brand or mark which is the source of your commercial motivation.

2. Using the word "Notes" isn't by itself trademark infringement. Why can't I create my own series called "Michael's Notes" or "The Law Professor's Notes" for an outline series? The "for Dummies" series of books may be trademarked but this is not quite the same thing, especially since it is a good description of what is inside the book.

3. You can always use your own look and feel for your book covers. Nobody is limiting you. If you're deliberately trying to trade off of the look of others, while you might be able to get away with it - and it might even be perfectly legal - you may be asking for trouble. Do you think that, if you mass produced this product, the big business behind Cliff Notes isn't going to take some type of action?

Just some thoughts...