Know-How Exchange : Branding

To be sure - ask a lawyer for their professional advice.

*** I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice.***

It is my understanding that you can use any name you want unless or until someone with a trademark for prior use decides to take action against you. Then you need to defend or stop using it, pay damages, and/or negotiate a mutually agreeable settlement.

Most of the time, even with a valid registered trademark, the trademark owner will not want to take on the expense of policing and defending his/her mark -- especially if there are no provable damages and/or they are no longer actively promoting the mark. (Current active use may be a factor.)

If you want to be super-careful, the question in your case may be whether a book title is even considered a trademark (or not). That's one for the lawyers.

Regardless, your question is not really a marketing question but a legal one. It's probably not appropriate for this forum for that reason. Ask your attorney.

Probably not.

It's going to be complex to determine depending on whether the phrase is treated as just the title of a book, or as the name of a methodology or treatment process type 'product', and whether you're trying to link the book to your business.

However, taking out whether it's legal or not, if you get into a legal dispute, even if you think you should win it, it will potentially add substantial cost to the business. If you think the name has enough brand potential you may choose to take this risk but take legal advice first to understand what your potential exposure would be. You might even find contacting the author (or his estate) will give you a green light, or allow you to set up a non-dispute agreement, or just to find out if a dispute is likely.