I’m in need of help. Here’s the situation: I received an email from Central University of Arkansas’ poetry department explaining to me that their school’s poetry journal is named Slant, which was founded in 1986. They are considering an online presence but through some research, found out that I run an online journal named Slant. They are requesting that I change the name of my online journal. After some correspondence, I learned that they’ve registered their journal name with the Library of Congress as Slant: A Journal of Poetry. I explained that since that is their official journal name, there shouldn’t be a problem since my journal is simply called Slant and that my ISSN submission was sent in two weeks ago.
I have not heard back from them but am getting nervous (because I worry too much). I’ve also looked up the domain “www.slant.com” and it has already been taken by an individual who uses it as a blog. Then I looked up “www.slantjournal” and that domain is available. I’m considering buying the domain ASAP.
I guess my question is: Is there a serious issue here? If there is, what are my options? Can they sue me? Is it my responsibility to change the name of Slant even though their journal name is Slant: A Journal of Poetry? What, exactly, are the legalities here?
I would really appreciate any help from anyone who might know anything about this sort of stuff.
I’d seek some advice from an attorney. The school has 25 years of history behind them. I can see how having two “Slant” poetry journals online would be quite confusing.
I did a quick Google seacrh, and their journal came up pretty fast; I found yours on page two. Did you, by chance, *search* the name before you decided to call your journal “Slant”? (This was, by the way, my first response a while back when I heard tha ta new journal called “Knockout” was being formed; a quick search showed an existing journal with the same name, though of a very different nature.)
It looks like your journal has been up for about six months. They’ve been around for what, thirty years?
At minimum, I would not go throwing money into a domain name right now. I’m not an attorney, nor do I play one on TV, but to me it looks like you didn’t do your homework.
I see this the same way Collin does. It seems more productive, and supportive to what they’ve been cultivating for a long time, to let the established Slant have the domains/names. It would also confuse the AWP Bookfair folk.
Yeah, I could forsee some confusion perhaps in the future, but then again, if they didn’t have the forsight to have an online presence before this, perhaps they are too late to the boat. I also don’t think it’s possible to copywrite titles of things..so from a legal standpoint, you’re safe..sucks that they can’t peacefully co-exist, though..
is there anyway you could modify it slightly?