Tag: #cockygate

Updated: #cockygate Part 2: #Cocky Author Files Lawsuit (includes link to full summary)

Posted May 30, 2018 by Holly in Discussions, News | 12 Comments

Note: This is a pinned post. Scroll down for additional content.

Update June 1, 2018: Thanks to Euna Park for the updates she was able to post on the court hearing this morning in NYC. The judge denied FH the temporary restraining order she requested for the publishing of books with the word “cocky” in the title and removed Kevin Kneupper from the lawsuit. Kevin being removed from the lawsuit has no bearing on his trademark case. That is separate.

Much of the hearing discussed what cocky represented: contents of the book or an adjective for the title. But even if used for the title, the word wasn't strong enough to indicate a specific series. Plaintiff argued that "cocky" in romance genre was synonymous to Hopkins' books.

— Euna Park (@eunapark) June 1, 2018

FH’s lawyer is really claiming that the word “cocky” is synonomous with FH in the romance genre. Wow. Considering nobody knew who she was before all of this came to light, that’s overstating the shit out of things. I mean, sure, NOW that might be true but not in the way I think her lawyer meant.

Author Liv Morris also attended the hearing and had this to say about the Cocktales: The Cocky Collective:

I attended the hearing for #cockygate today. As an author in #Cocktales our book is free to continue. On the way home and will tweet specifics and observations. Many that will NOT make official record.

— Liv It Up! (@LivMorrisAuthor) June 1, 2018

This is more great news for Team Romance. I’m super glad to see that Cocktales will be able to continue to sell books. I really love how supportive our community has been over this whole thing. It makes me so glad to be apart of such an awesome community.

Here is a list of links that Courtney Milan provided that includes all, or well, most documents pertaining to the lawsuit:

Defendants Joint Memo in Opposition to Preliminary Injunction & TRO
Tara Crescent Affidavit
Crescent Exhibit D
Crescent Exhibit G
Declaration for Jennifer Watson
Declaration for Penny Reid
Plaintiff (FH) Reply to Memorandum of Law in further support of Plainitffs Motion
Full Transcript of Preliminary Hearing on June 1, 2018

Here are some other posts that went up in the last couple of days:

Authors Guild and RWA Prevail in Court Defending Authors in “Cocky” Trademark Dispute
Judge Denies Injunction Request in Cocky Trademark Dispute
RWA’s Update on Recent Trademark Proceedings
The Cocky Trademark Author Writes an Open Letter to Herself in Response to Cockygate
How an Author Trademarking the word “cocky” turned the romance novel industry inside out

Marc Whipple has a great running commentary on the entire #cockygate on his blog so be sure to check that out too.

Posted on May 30, 2018: Rowena and I have been on vacation so while we’ve been keeping up with the latest nonsense with #cockygate, we haven’t had a chance to update until now.

12 Comments

Tagged: #cockygate, Authors Behaving Badly, Faleena Hopkins, Holly Says, Stupid People Piss Me Off

Updated: #Cocky Romance Author Trademarks word, Starts #cockygate: A Summary

Posted May 7, 2018 by Holly in News | 61 Comments

Update May 16, 2018: Kevin Kneupper received Notice of Institution in the “cocky” trademark challenge.

Have received Notice of Institution in the "cocky" trademark challenge. Dates go out to end of 2019 – but Lauren Emerson and Cameron Reuber of @LeasonEllis, soon to be world's foremost romance novel legal specialists, working hard! Hope to end as soon as we can! pic.twitter.com/XkPf0KSuVF

— Kevin Kneupper (@kneupperwriter) May 15, 2018

More pages here. Very glad that @amazon was gracious and is letting the legal challenge play out – thanks @romancewriters! pic.twitter.com/LlCMyti3Gu

— Kevin Kneupper (@kneupperwriter) May 15, 2018

Which basically means the challenge has been filed.

In other related news, the website cockyandproud.com popped up recently, claiming to support 3 of the authors Hopkins targeted. Dusk Peterson on Twitter questions the legitimacy of the site, especially since they’re using affiliate links to make money, which they claim will be donated into gofundme (or similar ventures).

This is a stronger warning against the website https://t.co/qudinFDbKa.

Three of the authors who are listed at the site have told me they have no connections with the site. Wherever the site's donations are going, it's not to these #cockygate authors. 1/ https://t.co/2T3OIzEA8b

— Dusk Peterson (@duskpeterson) May 16, 2018

Apparently three of the authors say they have no affiliation with the site. If you want to support them, buy their books on Amazon.

This is a stronger warning against the website https://t.co/qudinFDbKa.

Three of the authors who are listed at the site have told me they have no connections with the site. Wherever the site's donations are going, it's not to these #cockygate authors. 1/ https://t.co/2T3OIzEA8b

— Dusk Peterson (@duskpeterson) May 16, 2018

I hate to say it, but people can be assholes. Please make sure you aren’t getting taken advantage of

The crazy video Hopkins posted is up at Vimeo if you want to watch it. I’m not sure what to tell you about it. You’re welcome? I’m sorry? Good luck?

More links:

Vox.com: How an author trademarking the word “cocky” turned the romance novel industry inside out
Slate.com: Who Owns Cocky?

Update May 11, 2018: I had very limited access to the internet the past couple days, so I’m a little behind in updating this post. Faleena Hopkins deleted her Facebook account, along with the 1:42:00 video we linked to below. ~~It may crop up again, but if you didn’t see it, you didn’t miss anything. I promise.~~ ~~The video is back up at YouTube. I embedded it below.~~ The video is down again. You can read Jenny Trout’s live-tweeting of it for a summary.

Amazon responded to RWA’s request that no further titles be removed while this matter is being resolved. They agreed.

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

Prior to that, authors and readers noticed reviews featuring the word “Cocky” were being removed from both Amazon and Goodreads. I haven’t seen anything from Amazon or Goodreads direct about that, but reviewer Lillie tested the system by posting two reviews – one with the word “Cocky” and one without. The review with cocky was held for 13 hours, while the one without posted immediately. Oddly enough, she noted the review with cocky went live right about the time Amazon announced it would honor RWA’s request. If I were a suspicious person….