Producer Filed Us Trademark On My Screenplay Title

Location: Canada but this concerns US trademark.

I wrote a script for a vertical thriller series and it was optioned by an experienced Canadian producer, Matt. An American producer, James, was brought on board to help raise financing. James has never worked in the film industry and comes from the world of advertising. James put together a marketing plan, started attaching talent, and had early discussions with brands for partnership opportunities.

Matt and James had a falling out as they had different views on how things should be done. James wanted to take more risks financially that would give them more freedom, and Matt wanted to go the safe route. Matt owns the rights to the script and James was cut from the project. They never signed any agreements with each other.

The US copyright for the script was registered in the name of Matt’s production company. That application is still pending.

Over one month later, James registered a US trademark on the title of the series. He put the date of first use as the day before the copyright application date. This application is still pending. He put for “Entertainment services in the nature of a thriller television series”

The project has not been produced or commercially released. James has had an AI generated posted for the series on his website as promotion for his company, and that’s the only public use of the title. I came up with the title and I have a paper trail to prove this. The title has only been used in connection with my series.

Also worth noting that the marketing plan, attached talent and brand partnerships James put together will not be used.

James has also been trying to poach me and keeps asking to see my writer agreement so he can see if I can get out of it, and is promising me more money. I have told him no several times and he keeps pushing.

Does James have a case here? Can he really claim the trademark on a title for my script?? I’ve never heard of someone claiming the trademark on a production title like that before. Usually in the film industry we are dealing with copyright.

Since it’s still pending, how do I go about contesting it? If it’s approved, can he really stop me from using the title?