RWA to help fund new trademark lawsuit


Romance Writers of America continues to fight against trademark overreach in a new case involving a single word trademark. 

On August 20, 2019, author Tom Tessier filed a lawsuit opposing the standard word trademark for the word “TAMER,” which is held by author Michael-Scott Earle, doing business as MSE Media, LLC. 

RWA, along with the Authors Guild and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, will finance a portion of Tessier’s legal fees. Tessier is a member of all three organizations. 

One of RWA’s core beliefs is that romance writers have the right to the preservation of authorial and intellectual property rights. It is our mission to help protect authors against threats of infringement. We believe this case, like “Cockygate” before it, has ramifications for all of our membership and the writing community at large, and we are proud to support it. 

RWA’s portion of the legal fees will come from funds donated by the Cocky Collective, which were specifically earmarked for cases such as this. We would once again like to thank all those involved in this initiative for their support of RWA’s crucial advocacy work.

Read more about RWA’s advocacy work here. We will provide updates on this case as it proceeds.