Romance novelist Faleena Hopkins has failed in her attempt to trademark the word 'cocky' to prevent what she saw as copycat authors capitalising on her erotic series. A New York court ruled on Friday that she could not stop others from using the word in their book titles.
Hopkins, who has written 19 books in her 'Cocky' series since 2016, had trademarked the word and font in September 2017 after noticing other works with similar titles and fonts. She sent letters to authors she believed were infringing, sparking a dispute within the romance writing community.
The author, who has sold around 600,000 copies of her books, said she never intended for the issue to escalate. 'I set out to protect my brand with getting a trademark and I unwittingly set off a war that I still don't understand,' she told DailyMail.com.
Following the court decision, Hopkins has decided to give up the trademark. Tara Crescent, one of the authors involved, has agreed to change the cover of her book 'Her Cocky Firefighters' to avoid confusion. The case has highlighted tensions between authors over branding and originality in the competitive romance fiction market.
