THE RUNAWAY AUCTION?


Findlaw.com informs the IPKat that Stephen King, John Grisham, Andrew Sean Greer (who?) and several other best-selling authors are joining Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon on 1 September in auctioning on eBay the right to name characters in their new novels. Profits will go toward a campaign to defend the free speech rights of activists, writers and artists called the First Amendment Project. Says Chabon:
"It feels a little scary for most writers because when you're writing you're completely in charge. You can say this book is all mine, it's my world. Whether giving some of that over has any monetary value or not, we'll see".
King says his highest bidder will get to name a character in a new zombie novel he describes as being "like cheap whisky ... very nasty and extremely satisfying". John Grisham, on the other hand, is promising to portray his top bidder's chosen name "in a good light". Findlaw recommends that bidders beware: most of the authors are clearly retaining creative control to use the names as they see fit.

The IPKat wonders what the authors would do if they found that the winning bidders had taken the trouble to register their names as trade marks. This could be a short-cut to fame or fortune on the back of a successful novel, particularly if it became a film. Merpel says, "I'm not so sure about this cheap whisky business though".

Misery "heroine" heroine Anne Wilks here and here.
THE RUNAWAY AUCTION? THE RUNAWAY AUCTION? Reviewed by Jeremy on Tuesday, August 16, 2005 Rating: 5

2 comments:

  1. They need to think through them thar terms and conditions.

    I win and I choose to name my characters Harry Potter and Hermione Grainger. Cue the arrival of a writ.


    The IP Dog.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Arising from the IP Dog's comment -- do fictional characters have the right to rely on an "honest use of one's own name" defence in trade mark infringement proceedings?

    ReplyDelete

All comments must be moderated by a member of the IPKat team before they appear on the blog. Comments will not be allowed if the contravene the IPKat policy that readers' comments should not be obscene or defamatory; they should not consist of ad hominem attacks on members of the blog team or other comment-posters and they should make a constructive contribution to the discussion of the post on which they purport to comment.

It is also the IPKat policy that comments should not be made completely anonymously, and users should use a consistent name or pseudonym (which should not itself be defamatory or obscene, or that of another real person), either in the "identity" field, or at the beginning of the comment. Current practice is to, however, allow a limited number of comments that contravene this policy, provided that the comment has a high degree of relevance and the comment chain does not become too difficult to follow.

Learn more here: http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/p/want-to-complain.html

Powered by Blogger.