The title of a film is carries great importance as it has to convey through it the idea, mood and underlying story that the film holds. But what provisions does the law provide to protect such Intellectual Property?
Are film titles entitled to copyright protection? This was settled in the case of Krishika Lulla & Ors. v. Shyam Vithalrao Devkatta & Anr, while deciding the copyrightability of the film title ‘desi boys’; it was held that film titles are not copyrightable and do not qualify for protection against copyright infringement.
The good news is that movie titles can be protected under trademark laws. Pre-requisites of distinctiveness and no possibility of confusion are to be considered even while affording trademark protection to movie titles. For instance, in an important judgement, the court held inter alia that there was no confusion between “Harri Puttar’ and “Harry Potter” as the targeted audience were capable to distinguish between the former and the latter.
Titles of movie series can be protected as trademarks as they indicate that each of the movie in the series under that particular name originates from the same source. However, titles of standalone single movies have to acquire secondary meaning as per trademark law to be able to obtain trademark registration. Factors such as length or extent of use, extent of promotion and sales, etc. are taken into account while granting registration to such single film titles. This is to well establish the source of the work and deter the chances of confusion.
Filmmakers can therefore register their film title as a service mark under class 41, which provides for registration of a trademark under various entertainment services including film production, radio entertainment, film studio and the like.
Another prevalent practice in the industry is Registration of film the titles with Industry Associations such as the Indian Motion Pictures Producers’ Association (IIMPPA), Association of Motion and Television Programs (AMPTPP) etc. Registration with such associations helps in establishing priority and internal checks so that the same name is not granted to another entity so involved in the association. However, these do not hold great weightage in the court and does not reserve exclusive rights to the filmmaker. It only provides priority and authorship privilege.
Therefore, trademark regimes do offer legal protection to film titles whereby the names are treated in similar way as the trademark of other commercial commodities, which establishes the ownership and validity when so registered with the Trademark Registry.