Although copyright is automatically assigned in South Africa, the complexity of copyright and a closely related field – trademarks, makes it essential to get the advice from copyright lawyers Pretoria on various issues.
Smit & Van Wyk is one of the leading copyright lawyers Pretoria firms and as such provides extensive guidance regarding issues which may cause a bit of confusion. One such an area is that of the title of a book.
The text of books is considered to have copyright status, but the title is a bit more complex. Book titles are viewed as slogans, so they can be trademarked; however, they cannot obtain copyright status. The only way they can receive trademark status is if they have a secondary meaning, aside from a description of the book's content.
Normally, because titles are seen as simply descriptions of content, it is difficult for them even to get trademark status.  A person therefore would find it difficult to take legal steps against another author for using the same title of a book, unless the title is trademarked. The rationale here is that if a title had copyright status, the title would be restricted to that book when it could be equally relevant to separate books. Titles that are part of a series and have secondary meanings are more likely to earn trademark status. If you need help in getting a title trademarked you should get the help of the Smit & Van Wyk copyright lawyers Pretoria firm.