NB: Please see updates below.
I’ve noticed as I age (like a fine wine, of course) that I experience different kinds of upset. Sometimes I feel flash-rage explosive, and sometimes I experience a more slow burn of never-ending sneer.
Then there’s the upset that’s a full-body exhale of impending exhaustion. Ever walk into a room and discovered that a toddler has made a mess that includes syrup, ink, and olive oil on a white rug, then watched as they upended a quart of spoiled milk on top? You can see the problem, and beneath it, the hours and hours that will be required to clean it all up.
That’s the feeling I’m experiencing right now, looking at the trademarking of the word “cocky.” Oh, look, that’s a massively ignorant mess and it’s going to take considerable time, energy, and funds to clean up. Yet here we are.
So what happened? As originally reported by Bianca Sommerland via YouTube, and written about extensively and exquisitely by Kayleigh Donaldson at Pajiba, Kevin Whipple, Jenny Trout, Courtney Milan, and many, many clever individuals on Twitter, a self published author has trademarked the term “Cocky,” both the term itself and the word in a font to which said author does not own the rights. Said person has begun telling authors of works with “cocky” in the title or series name that they must remove or retitle their books immediately. Using said trademark, this person has also reported works from authors including Jamila Jasper, Nana Malone, and others to Amazon, which has removed them from retail sale.
TL;DR: Basic cocky trademark bullying.
Someone in the US Patent and Trademark Office made a big ol’ cock-up. They left ink, syrup, olive oil, and spoiled milk within reach of a toddler. And to be fair, the term “toddler” is giving way too much credit. Toddlers are great fun and are learning about the world. They can grow up to be great people.
This is an adult with what seem to be harmful, deceitful, and fraudulent intentions.
You’ll note I’m not using said author’s name. That’s deliberate. I didn’t want to write about this at all because it’s such an idiotic and immature ploy designed mostly to waste other people’s time. I didn’t want to contribute my energy or direct any eyeballs at the mess. And really, based on the excerpts shared by Sil Who Knows Pretty Much All the Things, this person’s books would not have been mentioned here any time soon, either.
Yeah.
To quote The Gospel According to Shade, Chapter Nene, Verse One: “Nobody was talking about her a few years ago. And so now, you know, I know this is a blessing that we are all speaking her name today.”
The satisfying resolution for having cost so many people unnecessary time and energy over something so fraudulently obtuse would be the obscurity that this person so very much deserves.
But meanwhile, the mess is still there, and it’s starting to smell.
Fear not! Many an excellent person has spent hours over the past weekend attempting to contain and correct it. Let’s take a look at what they’re doing, shall we?
First, oh, that trademark. The circumstances surrounding the granting of this trademark contain some ripe, stanky bullcrap, and marvelous people are on the case.
Ferocious retired patent attorney and author Keven Kneupper has filed a Petition to Cancel a Trademark with the US Patent and Trade Office, outlining in detail the manner in which the acquisition of the trademark was fraudulent and should therefore be cancelled.
You can read the redacted version of the filing on Dropbox. It’s delightful and most thorough.
A few tweets of note from Mr. Kneupper:
https://twitter.com/kneupperwriter/status/993360537743343616
So while the trademark was acquired on 1 May, and letters and email messages went out to authors over the last six days, the process to clean up the mess may take up to a year and a half. Moreover, Mr. Kneupper has underwritten the cost of this filing, reported to be around $800-$1000 dollars.
Similarly, authors who have had to redesign and reissue their covers and books are also enduring some of the cost of this mess, particularly since Amazon has begun removing books from sale.
This point is particularly important:
https://twitter.com/kneupperwriter/status/993588601077186560
RWA is working on a lot of behind-the-scenes advocacy, including asking Amazon to stop removing titles while the trademark is being contested:
We have contacted Amazon to provide them with detailed info on this matter and have asked if they will pause further removals/suspensions on books w/ titles containing "cocky" while this is being contested. We will provide more updates as possible when we receive their response. https://t.co/C1x1my9PCX
— RWA (@romancewriters) May 8, 2018
No word on what the response might be.
Update 5/9 10:45am:
Amazon has responded to our request to say that they will not be removing titles from sale until this matter is resolved and have reinstated those they previously removed. We are still in discussion with counsel as to next steps and will report more as we are able. https://t.co/MCheapueye
— RWA (@romancewriters) May 9, 2018
Update 5/9 3:45pm:
https://twitter.com/kneupperwriter/status/994292724760104960
And if @LeasonEllis ends up taking depositions related to #cockygate, we'll waive the cost of our electronic exhibit software https://t.co/BAJ7pOpL4P
— AgileLaw (@agilelaw) May 9, 2018
I reached out to RWA to ask what other efforts are in progress that they can talk about at present, and asked what authors who receive notices should do. The response was that “authors should contact their KDP rep and Carol Ritter at carol.ritter@rwa.org before doing anything else.”
And then, of course, there’s the humorous side.
Amid the many hashtags that compile the conversation about this foolish crap, there have been some excellent moments.
Jamila Jasper immediately retitled her book The Cockiest Cowboy To Have Ever Cocked, and put it back up for sale after she was targeted.
Jackie Barbosa has put out a call for submissions to an anthology all about…Cocky Cocker Spaniels.
Just Add Dogs! is always a solid strategy to any publishing venture, right? Indeed.
A brief note from my not-at-all-litigious friend, Zeb, who would submit a story except for the part wherein he is a dog:
Hi. I am Zeb. I am part Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and part Cocker Spaniel.
The Lady says my breed name is therefore King Cock. I should probably trademark my breed name but I am tired so it is naptime instead.
Other new titles include the snort-worthy C*ocky Author by “Fettucine Holliday.”
And if you, too, are looking for a pen name, this Reddit/Books thread offers many people’s laudable efforts trying to remember the author’s name.
So, what next?
Well, mostly, we wait. Jackassery happens fast. Correcting scurrilous jackassery moves at a much slower pace. Ignominy followed by obscurity seems to be the likely outcome. Eventually.
While there isn’t a playbook or visible precedent for this type of deceitful trademark scam in romance fiction, CM Stone says that she’d interacted with the author in question amid get-rich-quick-by-writing-books-really-fast communities popular in some indie crowds. Her outlook is on the dire side:
And even if the acolytes start dropping away from the indie gurus, fear not. There’s still another way for the unscrupulous to feed off of other authors: litigation. Pour money into lawyers like you’ve poured into advertising. Threaten to sue if people don’t take their books down or pay you off, based off of a dubious trademark violation. Go after indie authors, obviously. Your natural prey. You’ll either thin the herd and reduce your competition or actually manage to bleed them for money.
Alas, I share a little of her pessimism. There will always be another way to scam people, to game the system, to play the algorithm to one’s benefit until the rules change and new methods are developed, then all of it will be packaged and sold to others.
But I do have some hope.
One thing I have learned from knowing so many attorneys both inside romance and outside of the romance community: much like authors, lawyers get ferociously angry when someone makes a mockery out of their profession. They take it very personally. If you want to make a bunch of lawyers angry, which I don’t advise, manipulate and make a joke out of the law and then brag about it. That’ll pull the red anger handle right quickly, much like plagiarism among authors. This kind of act is deeply offensive, hence the number of intellectual property and patent attorneys getting involved and offering to help, some extending their pro bono hours to do so.
The other reason I have faith in the ignominy and then obscurity of the individual in question: readers care very much about the books they read. Readers do pay attention. We’re looking for books to read and enjoy, and we are invested personally and actively in the community which produces the books we love. We care about the books we buy, the content therein, and the future of the genre. I know I’m paying attention and choosing where I put my energy and my eyeballs.
So while it may take a long time to overturn, and while it continues to cost people time, money, and energy they might have spent elsewhere, we are some cocksure, ferocious people, and we won’t let this stand unchallenged.
Updated 5/8, 7:33pm: Kevin Kneupper was a guest on the Horrible Writing podcast, talking about trademarks, cocks, and other relevant topics.
Cock yeah. <3
This whole thing is baffling and enraging on so many levels!
bit where this particular author thinks other authors who use the SAME STOCK photos as her are copying her…
and that actually changing titles of books is super super duper easy y’all despite writing an authors note in one of her books that she realised the title was an incorrectly used term (referring to Marines as Soldiers) but alas it was too late to change the title so she was stuck with it…so it only easy for everyone else to change their titles….which they also can’t do if Amazon suspends the book and they get no warning that its going to happen (which happened to one author whose series predates this authors decision to retitle her series to use Cocky).
Baffling and ENrAGING
The way that CM Stone discusses the Kool-Aid approach to writing reminds of MLM schemes. The pushing yourself to put out something just to have it out there, the other authors that say that they’re making tons and something must be wrong with you if you’re not rolling in it… Ugh.
Reminds me of how in the 80s a certain fantasy role playing game designer tried to copyright the word Nazi for his Indiana Jones series. Needless to say, that didn’t fly.
Given that the Electronic Frontier Foundation highlights bad patents and fraudulent copyright takedown notices regularly, I’m surprised they haven’t taken this one up yet…
I read an excellent open letter from Cassie Sharp about it which was ultimately a brilliant essay about why writer peer groups are so important for new authors: https://cassiesharpbooks.wordpress.com/2018/05/07/open-letter-to-faleena-hopkins/
@trix, it’s possible that they haven’t noticed it yet, as it’s only really a few days old, and may not have reached very far out of the romance realm yet to catch their attention.
Having never heard of SWSRN before Saturday I came to this site, searched and thought to myself hey if SBTB hasn’t heard of her, she ain’t worth reading in the first place (yeah I know you might’ve missed a good author or two 🙂 ).
Thanks for the link to the Medium article. Of all the perspectives I’ve read over the weekend about this, that was a different angle that hadn’t been mentioned.
What a train wreck she is!
I just can’t understand the author’s thinking behind this. Notoriety, sure. But the romance community is NOT the place to play that game. Romance is tight knit and thrives on mutual support and connections. This is just… painfully stupid.
Sorry, but you cannot have a discussion about cock without perusing the amazing work known as “Farmer Granger and the Most Glorious Cock”, a Little Goblin Book created for the Severus/Hermione Gift Fest. The whole glorious thing is here and it is so Not Safe For Work that I cannot classify it.
And it is beautiful.
Fumbelina Hashbrown’s name has come up in problematic circles in the past. Trust me, she has a peer group. This is what they do. There are writers in indie publishing, and then there are mercenaries who will do whatever they have to in pursuit of that $25,000 KU bonus every month.
The root problem is these get-rich-quick publishers have as little emotional investment in their books (which they often don’t even write) as in their professional reputations and have no qualms about self-destructing, burning it all down, and repeating the formula. They resurface fresh as a daisy and leave the damage to be cleaned up by hardworking authors with careers worth preserving.
Happens all the time. This explosion is just noisier than most.
God lord, you needed to spare us that screen shot. I have no self control, so I clicked it. I am deeply sorry I did so. I’ve found some of my writing from back in my teen years when I thought I could be a writer. Even my purpley prose heavily influenced by the bodice rippers of the 70s was better than that. Hey…. maybe I CAN be a romance writer…
Also, arrgggghhhhh! Brain hurts.
I was so ignorant of all that Ren Benton, its been really eye opening to me!
What is also mind boggling is that her books did get a fair amount of good reviews on GR and Amazon… I don’t understand how respectable indie writers like Elizabeth Kingston or Erin Satie get comparatively a handful of reviews vs. the thousands for this lady, not after reading that excerpt! How’s buying that drivel? Is it all KU?
@Claudia – I suspect someone purchased those reviews. An author I follow ran one of her books’ reviews through a site that gives a letter grade as to the authenticity of reviews on one of her books and it got a D rating. She did mention that one of her books got the same, even though she didn’t buy ratings, but there may be something there.
@Claudia: https://www.janefriedman.com/extra-ether-buying-book-reviews-still-admire-john-locke/
You don’t even have to go looking for them on Fiverr these days. Every morning, my inbox is choked with offers to do paid reviews. The cottage industries that have evolved around shady self-publishing abound. They flourish because of the perception one must “compete” with the scam artists successfully gaming the system.
Readers don’t recognize $3000 of editing, but $3000 of glowing reviews buys a lot of consumer confidence. Even if you return the book you were persuaded to try because of its glowing reviews after two pages because it’s trash, the rank boost from the buy/borrow permanently improves that book’s visibility and favored status in the algorithm, ensuring it gets shown to a wider audience.
Having no integrity is a lucrative business.
What’s so depressing is the scam is now the business. Days like this…times like this…it’s so disheartening. It puts me in mind of Leonard Cohen’s song, “Everybody Knows”:
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go look at puppy videos on YouTube.
@DiscoDollyDeb: All these years, my musically illiterate butt thought that was a Concrete Blonde original. Learn something new every day at the hot pink palace.
Is it possible for the indie authors she’s harmed to successfully sue her pants off for damages?
That C.M. Stone piece seriously made me feel like a sane person after years of I Guess It’s Only Me…?
I know there have to be non-MLMish indies who want to balance craft and business acumen to just, you know, write fiction – instead of this meta ecology of gulling newbies into get-rich-quick schemes. Right? Somewhere?
But they get drowned out every time by the One Weird Trick Buy My Genius Plan Whargaaarbl brigade.
Like, if I wanted to sell Lularoe or Herbalife, I’d just do that and not write fiction…
Anyhow, I never saw that addressed until now, and I slumped in defeat out of the selfpub world in circa 2016.
Now that circus has spawned a situation that makes perfect sense given the factors that fed into it (money is literally the only thing, ethics are for suckers), and finally, finally someone else is like “uh… this is… off.”
Thanks tangentially, Terrible Ridiculous Fake-Litigious Author.
Cocky, in modern Yiddish, means poo.
..that sums it up
I have been waiting with bated breath for SBTB to tackle this. I ran across #cockygate over the weekend and spent a Bad Decisions Book Club™ night tracking down all the tweets until I couldn’t keep my pollen-weighted lids open. I love that you include an excerpt that is more damning than all the legalities. As always y’all offer the best summaries, excellent analysis, and superior cock-y gifs. Thank you. Thank you.
“Just long enough for me to second think this.”
…
…
…
I just can’t
And she has a Book Gorilla promo running today. Must say, all this was very effective in getting me to NOT click.
RWA intervened with Amazon to forestall indiscriminate ban-hammering against authors while legal avenues are pursued.
https://twitter.com/romancewriters/status/994226749935443968
Of course, it would require human oversight of an entirely bot-run system to fulfill this agreement, which is unlikely to happen due to Bezos being proudly anti-human, so rejoice with healthy skepticism.
@Katie Lynn and @Ren Benton
Wow I had no idea! I mean, I knew some reviews could be fakes, but I had no idea that it could be done wholesale. That explains it! I see so many good authors (and good books) struggling to get to one hundred reviews, good or bad, and it was jarring to see all the five-star reviews for this woman. I clicked through some of the quotes from her books on GR and they were all asinine, and the excerpt Sarah has here tells it all!
Claudia says:
May 9, 2018 at 12:31 am
5+
What is also mind boggling is that her books did get a fair amount of good reviews on GR and Amazon… I don’t understand how respectable indie writers like Elizabeth Kingston or Erin Satie get comparatively a handful of reviews vs. the thousands for this lady, not after reading that excerpt! How’s buying that drivel? Is it all KU?
——-
I heard various stories about that issue, so went in to check {after finding Bezos or bozos or whatever his name email to send regular email NOT amazon ‘help’ etc — most of her ‘books’ are not only NOT on ku except for the newer ones, but most are not even available in paperback, and the actual ‘main title’ of them is something about Cockers of Atlanta or some such drivel,
it’s the book titles that are Cocky this Cocky that, but as mentioned she totally failed the ‘First Use’ requirement {from what I read years ago, was maybe still is, series that was requirement too, and looney tunes even copied the photo} and as even Apple got slapped back a bit over using apple/Apple re just how and with what etc she’s coo coo for cocoa puffs
On top of all that, the font she also claims to have trademarked is either given or bought BUT states explicitly that it can NOT be copyrighted/trademarked by anyone so they may get in to the fight as well
as for the few ebooks that are on amazon, they are ku…and this is the totally stupid did her mother drop her on her head, on purpose, multiple times…readers/reviewers said that SHE told THEM to borrow it on ku FIRST, read through it, THEN buy it…which sounds as if she was trying to double dip or messing with the way it all works because if anyone buys outright or buys freebie day a book withing 30 days {may be 60, a writer was talking about ku and how long before they pay out} that it does NOT get paid ku but only the ‘buy’…so sounds to me as if she was pulling something with the ku algorythm {sp? sleepy} pulling SOMETHING
Waiting to hear if her b.s. is going to extend to the ‘I love’ series she has out or the ‘Heart’ series…and yes, could see her trying to pull that as well. My main issue, why ended up in here, was trying to find information one way or another that had said that amazon had begun at one point pulling ALL books with the word ‘cocky’ even if those were NOT ‘romance’ genre books, still don’t know
She did say on twitter that she wished there was a way to copyright or trademark the #Bye{her first name}, slimy piece of work that one
I’m gonna make a fool of myself, but here goes.
Even tho I’ve had a kindle (or 3!!) since late 2009, I have never learned to delete or add books to collections. If someone could point me in the right direction, I could delete the 2 books by this “author”. I have never read them, must have been freebies I downloaded.
This kind of stuff just turns me off. Won’t be wasting my time.
TIA!
@Kim: Don’t worry, I have had to look up the instructions several times. It’s not a silly question at all. Here are instructions on how to delete content from your devices at the Amazon site, and depending on which device, there are device-specific instructions, too. Please let me know if you need more help?
Sadly, it appears Amazon **allegedly** went so far as to remove reviews with the word cocky, too.
Talk about everyone overreaching.
fwiw, it’s not legal to trademark a single book title. You can trademark a word or (better) phrase that’s used to identify a series of books. But in the US, you must be able to prove use, and if it’s a common word you’re not likely to pass the “potential confusion” bar (meaning that common word probably appears in so many other trademarks that a reasonable consumer would not be able to identify the origin of a given thing in order to distinguish the source).
Personal example: I have a series of novellas that I call the L.A. Stories. I’m not the only one to use that phrase; Los Angeles magazine has used it for years, and of course there was a movie called L.A. Story. I’d be an idiot (or a jerk) to try to trademark “L.A. Stories.”
At best, you’d have to disclaim the common word, meaning that you ONLY had rights to the entire phrase in the context of the book series, and not to the common word. So I’m glad the IP community is jumping on this. It’s true what they say about trademark examiners … they have an awful lot of junk to sift through … and sometimes cock-ups happen. 🙂
Wait, @Kim Hawkins, and anyone else, can you organize your kindle library into categories? Cause I’m so tired of just sorting by author or purchase date, I can never find anything and it would be amazing if I could mark stuff as “read” or “un-read”.
@MClaudia, iI am always suspicious iof indie books by authors that I have never heard of that get 3000 five star reviews on GR or Amazon. If that author’s books were really that great, I’m sure that we would start hearing about the books elsewhere (like here at SBTB).
So, now I have a plan. I want to trademark the words “Chronicles,” “Saga,” “Epic,” “Trilogy,” and a few others. By the same theory as this loon, I should own half the Fantasy and SF market!
This whole debacle is just so ridiculous. But the upside has been that I have found some new authors and can totally justify buying more books to support them. (Where has Tara Crescent been all of my life?!) Also, I totally bought the Fettucine Holliday book after reading the excerpt. WORTH IT! The blurb says that if there is a legal fight, some of the proceeds will go towards funding it too.
This is amazing… and not in a good way. I will remember her name, so I can avoid her stuff 😉
It just goes to show that vague, squee filled reviews are marketing tools for authors. They’re useless to readers who are trying to find a decent book to read. Readers need critical reviews.
Sarah…didn’t work so well for me. According to my content I own no books from this author.
Olivia…I know it can be done but I haven’t learned how 🙂
Ummmm Sarah? Nevermind! LOL. Thanks for your help.
@Kim: If you got them from somewhere other than Amazon (i.e., Instafreebie), they won’t be on Amazon’s cloud. Devices differ in ease of deletion. On my ancient Kindle, I have to plug it into my computer via USB cable, open the directory, and manually delete the offending books. Fire makes it easier to delete via the Books gallery — just select the book and tap the trashcan. On a newer touchscreen Kindle, touch and hold the cover until the popup window appears, and Delete From Device is an option.
Paperwhite/Oasis might work differently yet again, but somebody here will be able to troubleshoot if that’s what you have.
Ack. I type too slow with my thumbs and missed the nevermind.