Trade marks and brand use

What you may do without asking

Section 30 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 preserves honest use of a mark to identify the proprietor’s own goods. That covers everything on this list, and we would rather booksellers and teachers named the book correctly than avoided naming it at all.

• · Naming a title accurately in a catalogue, a listing, a stock list, an invoice or a school book list — “The Language of Chemistry, Playbook®, Playway Books”.
• · Saying truthfully that you stock, have taught from, or are reviewing the book.
• · Referring to the book in an article, a review, a research paper or a lesson plan.
• · Using the title in a shop’s shelf label or a library catalogue record.

What you may not do

Each of these engages s. 29 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 — infringement by use of an identical or deceptively similar mark, including use that takes unfair advantage of a mark’s reputation or uses it as part of a business name or a domain.

• · Using PLAYWAY, Playbook or Playway Books in your own business name, trading name, school name, coaching centre name, app name, product name or domain name.
• · Registering any of them, or anything confusingly similar, as a trade mark, company name, domain, social media handle or advertising keyword.
• · Using any of the marks in a way that suggests we endorse, approve, accredit, supply, franchise or are associated with you when we are not.
• · Putting our logo or wordmark on your website, prospectus, packaging, banner, uniform or signage without written permission.
• · Altering the marks — redrawing the logo, changing its colours, stretching it, adding to it, translating a mark, or setting the sub-tagline as running body copy.
• · Using a mark as a verb or a plural, or in a way that turns it into a generic description of a kind of book.
• · Buying our marks as advertising keywords to divert someone searching for us to a competing product.

Falsely applying a mark to goods, and selling goods bearing a falsely applied mark, are criminal offences under ss. 102 to 104 carrying six months to three years. Section 135 gives us an injunction, damages or an account of profits, and delivery up of the offending material.

“Appreciated by” is not “approved by”, and neither is a mark

Two letters of appreciation exist, from CISCE dated 18 December 2002 and from NCERT dated 1 July 2008, and both are published in full on the about page with their dates. They are letters of appreciation for the method. They are not accreditation, not approval of any book as a prescribed text, and not current or ongoing, and no one — including a stockist or a distributor — may present them as any of those, or use a board’s name or emblem alongside ours in a way that implies endorsement. The disclaimer says the same thing about our own copy.

If you find a mark misused

Tell us: learn@playwaybooks.com, or the grievance page. Include the name, the URL or the shop, the date, and a screenshot if you have one. Counterfeit copies and fake “Playway” tuition are the two we hear about most, and both are things we can stop quickly once we know.

If you think we are infringing your mark, write to the same address with the registration number and the goods it covers. We will look at it properly and change what needs changing.