Hi all A friend is in the process of getting a book published about a famous sports celebrity. He is being threatened not to use this persons name because the name is trademarked and they will not allow a license to use that name. The authour has a long history with the subject of the book. They are longtime friends. What does the Law say?
It depends on what country your friend is in and what exactly he wrote, among other things. He needs to speak to a local attorney who specializes in trademark law. Although in my understanding this is something the publisher usually takes care of - publishers usually either have attorneys on staff or attorneys on call who can advise them as to the legality of publication. They would then make the call if it's OK to publish or if it's too legally risky.
In America you can write about whoever you damn well please. But if you write about real people you better write the truth or have a real solid justification for what you write. p.s. This is not the type of advice you should seek in the legal section of a webmaster forum. Have the writer or his publisher contact an attorney.
Yeah, in the US you have protection of writing about whoever you want. However if any information in there is false you open yourself up to libel lawsuits.
The author lives in canada and the offended party lives and runs a business based on the persons name in the U.S.
Even if the the author is perfectly legally in the clear for what he wrote, he still can get sued by the disgruntled party. That could end up costing significant amounts of both time and money. That's why it's worth consulting an attorney - firstly, to be certain that he really is legally in the clear; and secondly, to possibly head off a lawsuit (the attorney would be able to respond to any legal threats in correspondence, for example). But really, the publisher needs to be informed of those threats and they should take the lead as to what to do next.