Movie Title Legalities

Cracker Funk

Cracker Funk

So, as I understand it, you can't copyright the title of a movie, no? So, let's say I want to make a movie that involves a lot of music and a lot of dance, can anyone stop me from calling it "Step Up to the Mic"?

Either way, for now we'll use it as a working title. In "Step Up to the Mic", Rayphan Torres is a Chamorro freshman at the University of Washington, studying music. Coming from a "traditional" family that is deeply religious, he struggles with coming out as homosexual, and eventually decides to do so via musical expression.

This movie will have LOTS of music, and a lot of dance. So in that respect, it will be kinda similar to the "Step Up" movies. But it will also be different from the "Step Up" movies in the sense that the main character is a musician, not a dancer, and the only reason there's any dance in the movie is because those two things go together like PB&J.

I'd of course like the approval of the owners of the "Step Up" series. But what if they don't approve? My movie won't include any reference to any characters or anything in their series whatsoever. The only similarities are in the title and the fact that there's lots of music and dancing.

Your thoughts?
 
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I don't see it as TMed but always seek legal advice if concerned.

There are multiple films so it is a "brand" so to speak and could very well have trademarks, I only took a quick look.

There are lots of the same movie titles but once they become a brand they are easily trademarkable. You'd have a real hard time with Lord of the Rings. ;)

Yours is different and should be fine but could sound like a sequel so if it is TMed, cover your bases. Especially since it is song/dance.

Even if not TMed your content is similar so just do your due diligence. Similar title, content, could be seen as trying to imitate that brand. TM or not, they could sue if they felt you were using their brand. But the TM would help their case.
 
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Alternate title suggestion:

Out of Tune

Play on words:
Coming out
Singing
Odd note, not in tune (with society)
 
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It's a pretty popular series, and the first of the series stars one of the biggest movie-stars of the modern age. I would assume that it's trademarked, and thanks for explaining the differentiation between trademark and copyright.

I think my best bet is to just make the damn movie and figure out a title later. But title or not, it's totally going to be a "Step Up" movie.
 
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In a lawsuit the criteria would be; would a reasonable person seeing
the title "Step Up to the Mic" believe it is part of the "Step Up" series.
So if there were any similarities in tone, style, genre you could face a
lawsuit. No distributor would touch it so you limit your options. If you
self-distributed you could face a cease and desist . If you can argue
(as you did here) that while similar your move cannot be reasonably
confused with the established product then you might win any legal
action.
 
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Exactly just like counterfeit goods. Personally I'd steer clear of the name because the content is of the same vein.

The title is not the problem, it's the combo issue that the content is also very similar so you invite problems. Step Up To The Mic, a film about a politician named Mike... no problem.
 
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My understanding is you cannot copyright a title, but you can trademark. There is a lot of piggybacking so though it is not best practice there is nothing wrong with it (off course I am not a lawyer either so take it with a grain of salt).

As far as distributers not touching it.....

Terrarium (2003) was repackaged in 2005 as War Of The Planets by the distributor. At that time another movie came out called War Of The Worlds.
 
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Roger that. And yes, regardless of the fact that it will be different in many ways, it is absolutely 100% intended to be a continuation of that series, so I guess I should avoid any similarity in title. Thank you for the advice! This was probably a stupid question, but I was hoping...

EDIT - in my heart, it is intended to be a continuation of that series. But of course I know I can't legally do that. So the movie I'm crafting is quite different. I guess it'd be more accurate to say that the movie I want to make is heavily inspired by and will pay homage to the "Step Up" series, but is not the same thing.
 
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