Stop Publishing Composition Notebooks on KDP! (Until You Read This)

I recently uploaded a video on My Youtube Channel where I talked about a newly published composition notebook that is selling like hot cake. 

That exact composition notebook was ranked at no. 1026 in the books department on amazon and based on this best seller rank was making $207 dollars per day. That’s totally insane for a simple composition notebook, that was the reason that made me create the video.

My intention was to share with my audience the fact that low-content books with repetitive pages like composition notebooks are still selling even though the look inside feature has been discontinued for such books.

You can watch that video here, or click on the image below.

Anyways, I was talking about why you should stop publishing composition notebooks. Well, I have titled this post like this because I got some comments on the above-mentioned video saying that the word “Composition Notebook” is trademarked. 

Disclaimer: I am not a trademark expert, I am just sharing my personal opinion that is not equivalent to professional advice.

These comments surprised me and I jumped on the USPTO Trademark Search and searched for the exact keyword, “Composition Notebook” to see if it is trademarked or not.

Upon search, the USPTO is showing me one result for the keyword phrase composition notebook and that is;

“Graph Paper Composition Notebook Graph Paper Notebook”

And that is something really interesting to me, as this trademarked character is not merely composition notebook, it also has other words too. The trademark class for this phrase is 016 which is dedicated to paper goods. 

You can read the full description of class 016 below;

“IC 016. US 002 005 022 023 029 037 038 050. G & S: Graph paper; Graph paper for drawing and sketching; Notebook paper; Paper notebooks; Printed notebooks. FIRST USE: 20180802. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20180802.”

So, this was the reason that made most kdp publishers worried as they believed that the composition notebook is now a trademark keyword or phrase. In my opinion, this is not the case, read more about it below.

Is Phrase Composition Notebook Trademarked?

Even though the above-mentioned trademarked phrase contains the word “composition notebook”, in my personal opinion the word “composition notebook” is not trademarked. You can still publish books with the title “Composition Notebook” alone or in combination with other relevant words. 

For instance, you can title a notebook as:

• Composition notebook wide ruled
• Composition notebook college ruled
• Blank composition notebook
• Composition notebook for kids
• Composition notebook for school
• And so on…

What makes me think so?

Let me explain with an example. We all know that the word Bullet Journal is trademarked and we can’t use it to publish books on amazon kdp or any platforms. However, if you break this term into two pieces i.e. bullet and journal. Then none of the two is a trademarked word alone!!

Does this make sense now? The same is true for the trademarked term “GRAPH PAPER COMPOSITION NOTEBOOK GRAPH PAPER NOTEBOOK”. 

It is only a violation of trademark law if you use this term in full, however, if we break it into pieces like;

• Graph paper
• Graph paper notebook
• Composition notebook
• Notebook graph paper

Or we can combine these words to make more non-trademarked phrases;

• Graph paper journal
• Graph paper notebook for men
• Composition notebook for women
• Composition notebook for work
• Composition notebook for office

Then we can use it to sell composition notebooks on amazon kdp.

Again, this is what I think based on the fact that the term “composition notebook” alone is not trademarked. It is just a very long-phrase.

Am I Still Publishing Composition Notebooks on KDP?

If you ask me, then my answer is Yes, I am still publishing composition notebooks on amazon kdp because I believe this term alone is not trademarked yet. I am doing it at my own risk!! 

Final Thoughts

I have shared my personal opinion about the fact that the term “composition notebook” is a trademark keyword now. However, I would urge you to do your own diligence and seek guidance from any relevant source to be on the safer side.

Thanks for reading this blog post till the very end! I sincerely hope this post has helped you a little in your kdp journey. If this is so, then do share this post with your friends, just click on one of the social media icons below.

Thanks for sharing it!