Copyright: Its History and Its LawBowker, R. R. (Richard Rogers)
History
Copyright: Its History and Its Law
Bowker, R. R. (Richard Rogers)
Copyright -- History; Copyright -- United States -- History
There can be no claim to protection for the title of an unpublished
book, as a trade-mark or otherwise, just as there can be no copyright in
a projected book. This question was elaborately discussed in the leading
English case of Maxwell _v._ Hogg, in 1867, in relation to the magazine
_Belgravia_, when the rule was laid down that no matter what expenditure
had been made or advertising done, a title was not protectable previous
to its association with a work actually before the public. Judge
Shepley, in 1872, pointed out that "there is no such thing as property
in a trade-mark as an abstract name," for a trade-mark simply shows that
certain goods "were manufactured by a certain person." Nor can an
abandoned title, in the case of a periodical, be held against a person
starting a new periodical of that name, providing it does not purport to
be a continuation of the old, according to a French case quoted by
English authorities.
{Sidenote: Projected works not copyrightable}
There can be no statutory copyright in a book or other work projected
and not yet prepared, despite a very general notion that under the old
law a projected book could be protected by registering a title and
depositing a title-page of an unwritten or unpublished book. There is
nothing in copyright law corresponding to the _caveat_ in patent law.
This is not in conflict with the protection of an unpublished work at
common law or in equity referred to in the new American code (sec. 2) or
the provision in the new law (sec. 11) permitting the registration of "a
lecture or similar production or a dramatic or musical composition" or a
work of art, before publication, with the deposit of a complete copy or
identifying print.
{Sidenote: Immoral works}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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