Copyrighted Words in Copywriting. Continuation

In one of the previous posts we discussed the problem of copyrighted words. Now, that I got more information on this issue, I can share it with you. The fact is that you can't "copyright a name," or anything short like that. Titles usually don't qualify -- but hardly anyone will be able to write a song under the name "Everybody's got something to hide except for me and my monkey." (J.Lennon/P.McCartney)

Even though you can't copyright words, you can trademark them with the purpose of referring them to your brand of a generic type of product or service. Let’s take an "Apple" computer as an example. Apple Computer "owns" that word, even though it is also an ordinary word. At the same time, you can still use this word: apple, I bought apples, apples grow on the trees – just an ordinary word, a notion. Apple Records owns the word when applied to music. Neither owns the word on its own, only in context, and owning a mark doesn't mean complete control. At the same time, you can't use somebody else's trademark in a way that would unfairly hurt the value of the mark, or in a way that might make people confuse you with the real owner of the mark, or which might allow you to profit from the mark's good name. In the case with “hard-to-get”, I presume it is better not to use this word in combination with “tickets”, because this is going to be the context that is a trademark. For more information about copyright myths, go to http://www.clari.net/brad/copymyths.html.