Constant Content

Hi,

Does it infringe copyright to have a title of the nature "XYZ for Dummies"?

- Tom

"for Dummies" is trademarked, so you can't use it without their permission in any case that might cause consumer confusion (they think you're John Wiley & Sons, Inc.).

SJHillman wrote:"for Dummies" is trademarked, so you can't use it without their permission in any case that might cause consumer confusion (they think you're John Wiley & Sons, Inc.).

Thanks, changed it

I did use "for dummies" in one of my titles and had no problem getting it through the review process. I didn't know that it was trademarked, though! (Seriously, it doesn't make sense!) There are thousands of "for dummies" titles on the Internet, and many bloggers and website owners claim they've been approached with lawsuit threats by Wiley & Sons, Inc reps. Maybe I should consider changing the title altogether because, under these circumstances, nobody's going to buy it anyway!

A lot of people parody it with stuff like "for Idiots", "for Total Morons", or "for the Intellectually Challenged". It's obvious that's it's a parody of "for Dummies" and thus communicates the same idea to the consumer without the potential trademark infringement. If you come up with a catchy parody or pun related to the topic, it might even help the sale compared to using "for Dummies".

**NOTE: I can't guarantee that the above or any other parody of "for Dummies" isn't trademarked by someone else.