Doomed to Repeat History

Remember Faleena Hopkins and #Cockygate?

You'd think other writers would have learned from that fiasco, but no, long-time author Christine Feehan tried to pull #Darkgate. She's since withdrawn her attempts to trademark that single word.

Seriously, people! If Ohio State University with all their money and lawyers can't trademark "the", what makes you think you can trademark a single fucking word to represent your series?

(For context if you don't watch football, folks from OSU like to refer to their alma mater as "THE Ohio State University.")

Nor can you trademark just a person's name in the U.S. That's why J.K. Rowling's series is now "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter."

Christine blamed her attorney. Let's give her the benefit of the doubt for a moment. Speaking as an ex-attorney, if someone in the legal profession tries to talk you into trademarking a single world or a name, that person is looking dig their mitts deep into your bank account. Always, ALWAYS! get a second opinion. Tradmarks are expensive without the attorney fees.

So, rule of thumb is don't get a trademark unless you really need it. And question your attorney! If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.


**Note: I know I can't trademark "Bloodlines," "Justice," or "888-555-HERO." I need longer, more unique series' names. That doesn't mean that my friends and readers won't call you out if you steal my ideas.

Cheaters Never Prosper

I've been avoiding the subject of a bunch of authors slammed by the Amazon ban hammer over the last year. Why? Because I wanted to see how things shake out.

Maybe it's because I used to be an attorney, but I never take anyone at their word anymore. All the parties in a lawsuit are after something. Something they don't necessarily want the judge, jury, mediator, or arbitrator to know. And no one is totally innocent.

But a few recent cases actually made me take Amazon's side.

Their TOS is pretty fucking clear. (Except for where the line between erotica and pornography is. These days, most of us who write in the erotica genre have a clue where the mines are in the field and know better than to cross them.) But here's the thing, Amazon ain't REQUIRED to carry anybody's shit.

Including mine. Which is why I've tried to keep my nose clean since the 2013 Pornocalypse.

But like Faleena Hopkins and others before them, there's a few bad actors who are trying to proclaim their innocence and accuse Amazon of picking on them. Some of their reasoning is rather disingenuous.

Michael Scott Earle lost his arbitration case against Amazon last week. His attorneys' press release on the matter was, at best, laughable. What the press release left out was that MSE tried to sneak his books back on Amazon through another publishing company prior to the arbitration.

Furthermore, MSE went all-Faleena in trying to trademark single words or common terms within pop culture. "Dragon Slayer" was denied by the USPTO. However, "Tamer" managed to get through. There's currently a lawsuit to overturn that approval backed by the Romance Writers of America, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and the Author's Guild.

Then there's Alexa Riley, or actually the two young ladies who use the pseudonym of AR. Back in July, a lot of people were surprised that Amazon would *gasp* ban a top-selling romance author!

However, Amazon did not ban all of AR's books. They only banned AR's self-published books, not the ones published by Harlequin.

The ladies haven't admitted to anything, though there's a lot of speculation and suspicion in the writer communities including accusations of book stuffing, i.e. including multiple stories in a file without labeling it as a bundle or anthology. I do know that they used words in erotica titles that were banned back in 2013, such as "virgin".

Whatever pissed off the Powers That Be at Amazon was exacerbated  when the ladies also tried an end-runaround of the ban by signing a distribution deal with Entangled Publishing. The AR books Entangled put up on Amazon near the end of August disappeared from the retailer within hours.

I'm going to stick with the same thoughts I had when the subjects come up, as they invariable do, on writer-related social media. Would you go into a casino and disobey their rules?

Seriously, what happens if you count cards in blackjack, exchange the dice on craps, or swap out the ball at the roulette table? If you're lucky, you only get banned from the establishment.

Well, it's Amazon's house and Amazon's rules. They can ban anyone they want for just about any reason they want. Just be happy the company isn't run by the Mob.

How to Kill Your Writing Career in Five Easy Steps

1) Trademark a single word that isn't even the name of your series.

2) Steal someone else's intellectual property and illegally use it in your trademark.

3) Send your own cease and desist letters over the single word to small-fry authors using the word instead of paying your attorney to do so.

4) Try to avoid the blowback from the C&D letters by sending DCMA notices to Amazon.

5) Piss off the indie writer community by doubling down when you're called on being a trademark troll on said community.


If you're an indie writer, you've heard about Faleena Hopkins and #cockygate by now. One thing I can say about indies is they are a very supportive group.

Unless you decide to be a trademark troll.

We artists get enough of this shit from big corporations who think we can't fight back. Not long ago, MCA Hogarth was attacked by Games Workshop over the generic sf term "space marine". So when one our own does something stupid, our reactions range from Jenny Trout's WTF Faleena! to Cassie Sharp's Sweetie, you need to get some real friends.

Others actually took action. Some authors like Jamila Jasper went public with the letter she received. Jamila then used #cockygate to promote her renamed book. RWA contacted Amazon about the issue as a blatant attack on their membership. Several members then created a "cocky" anthology to help with the attorney fees (the book was released on Saturday, May 26th). Then there's writer/attorney Kevin Kneupper, who filed to cancel Faleena's trademark.

All this happened before I started writing this post. A death in the family last week  meant I came back to finish it five days later. And even more shit had happened.

Faleena stupidly thought filing a personal injury lawsuit against Kevin, Tara Crescent, and Jennifer Watson would make things go away. Mark Marcotte, a lawyer whose case is cited in Faleena's lawsuit as precedent, says Faleena's lawyer badly misstates his case (@markmarcotte on Twitter).

My favorite part was Faleena claiming she called Carol Ritter of RWA on May 16th and was pissed that Carol referred the call to RWA's counsel. Umm, if your already threatening to file lawsuits against people left and right, why on earth would anyone trust you to just talk?

There was a damn good reason Ms. Ritter didn't talk to Faleena. The cocky indie writer lost on her attempt at a Temporary Restraining Order last Friday on the Cocktales anthology. The Preliminary Injunction will be heard this morning.

The good thing to come out of this mess is that more writers are paying attentiion to trademark and copyright listings and trying to understand their rights and responsibilities. I'm not saying trademarks are a bad thing. If Faleena had trademarked the actual name of her series, instead of ripping off Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward's cover style and title, this would be an entirely different matter.

The bad thing is we have more idiots who don't understand, don't care, or just want to troll other authors in an effort to eliminate what they perceive as the competition.

I'll say this one more time: people can read more than we can write as individuals no matter how speedy we are. It's not a zero sum game. And if you need tricks to "win", maybe you're a sucky writer, and you should focus more on your craft to win the readers over.

- Angry Sheep, stepping off her soapbox.