TTAB Finds Single Diet Book Not Entitled to Protection

According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure, the title, or a portion of a title, of a single creative work is not registrable as a trademark, but the title of a series of creative works is. That's why The Hardy Boys, the title of one of the most popular juvenile book series of all time, is registered, but the title of the Herman Melville novel Moby Dick is not.

But rulings in this vein can be nuanced. For example, in a precedential ruling at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board in Independent Media Corporation (PVT.) Ltd. v. BOL Enterprise (PVT.) Ltd., Independent Media claimed prior use of the mark BOL, but BOL Enterprise opposed on grounds that the former's claim was based only on the title of a Pakistani motion picture. Independent Media then argued Bol Enterprise had perpetrated fraud on the USPTO, an assertion that failed to convince the Board.