All right, who was it?

‘Fess up.

Who’s the guy that actually granted somebody a trademark on the title Carnival of Souls?

Because the guy who owns that trademark is now using it to try to erase a novel of the same title from existence. It’s not enough for him to try to stop the novel — Oh, no. He also wants to force people to remove their reviews of the book from their websites, claiming that the reviews are further violations of his trademark.

Of course, as the multiple outlets that are paying attention to this story point out, BookFinder can find you tons of books that use this title — including a novel from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series.

But, honestly.

Carnival of Souls is one of the biggest cult classic films of all time. I have a shocking number of copies of this movie in my film collection because it winds up in almost every single multi-movie DVD set released. Not to mention my cherished RiffTrax edition. But not the Wes Craven Presents remake — renting that one once was enough.

Of course, my intellectual property regulation hobby (Yes, I know it’s weird) is pretty specialized around copyright. Trademark law makes copyright law look downright common sense by comparison.

For all I know, Jazan Wild may actually have grounds for a suit against HarperCollins — as ridiculous as that might seem when I can’t even count the number of media items in my apartment that use the same title. I can think that Wild’s claim to own the phrase “carnival of souls” is laughable in a world where it’s the title of an album from KISS, but my opinion (sadly) cannot predict the loops and whorls of trademark law.

But going after reviewers? That’s plain ridiculous.