Can i use the name of a novel as the name of a magazine i want to set up.?

Question

I am planning to launch a magazine in africa but the title i came up with is also the title of a romantic novel written about 5 years ago. I only realised this when i seached on the internet. Is there some way i can find out whether i am legally entitled to use the same title. It's very common but no magazine has used it yet. And considering that this will be in Africa does it matter? I do not want to get sued later in future by the author of the novel. Serious answers please! This is important to me.

Answer 1

You may have some copywrite issues your best bet woul be to contact the publisher

Answer 2

Depends if they have a copyright on the phrase, if they have trademarked it then you can't use it.  You'll need to research the rules around copyrighting as it seems to be quite contradictory to me. As I'm sure you're aware, once a band have taken a particular name as their own, another band can't come along and take the same one, unless they can prove they owned it first.

Some woman tried to sue the Spice Girls for calling their first album "Spice" as she had a copyright on the name "Spyce." That makes no sense, as they're quite obviously spelt differently. So I would check out if the name you want to use is trademarked by the author.

Answer 3

Titles are not copyright, so you can go ahead.  If you don't believe me, you can find lots of books with exactly the same title on Amazon; for example, look up the title "Signs of Life", so it must be okay to re-use someone else's title.  Your only problem is if the title gives the wrong impression about what your magazine is for.

Answer 4

How well known is the brand? Is it a common term? How specific is it?  all of these fine distinctions change what is protected and what is fair use.

you might get sued,but Africa has lax copyright laws.

Can we hear the name? what is the topic of the magazine? What was the book about?