Do F1 teams have copyright over their team names?

I'm planning a story about a fictional F1 driver, and I would like to use the real teams' names. Most of them, at least. I wonder if they have copyright over the team names, because writing about something that you don't have copyright about is a downright crime. I guess they don't, since the team names are splattered all over the news, but is it OK to use the team names in writing a novel?|||Copyright? Probably not... but the issue is ultimately not as simple as "is there a copyright?"





Copyright is used to protect original works of authorship (literary, dramatic, musical, and/or artistic). As such, the Ferrari logo could be copyrighted, but the name could not (it's a family name and not an original work of authorship). Most F1 teams fall in the same camp, though a name like Force India might be copyrighted.





What the names would be, are Trademarks, which are quite different than copyrights. I could open a store called Ferrari Books, and sell books and magazines and exerpience no problems with the Ferrari car company... however, if I were to open a car dealership and use the Ferrari name, I'd be the quick recipient of a letter from Ferrari's lawyers informing me that I had just stepped on the Trademark.





Since none of the F1 teams are in the business of selling literary works, it's unlikely they have any Trademarks relating to this, so it's PROBABLY ok. If you have a publishing deal and are set to go, then have you agent, your lawyer, your agent's lawyer, your publisher, or whoever is sitting along the legal chain for your work check out the specifics for the names you are using and the laws for the countries where it will be published.





if you do not have a publishing deal, then you are way ahead of yourself... write what you want. If you want to research it just for your own knowledge, check the Copyrights And Trademarks laws and registrations for the country where you live... but really, most of the names cannot be copyrighted, and Trademarks only come into play once you attempt to use them in "trade," which happens after the writing process.|||Technically they hold the 'rights' not the 'copyright' - but that is semantics. If you are a serious novelist then you might be able to obtain the right to use the official F1 team names, but licensing it from FOM will cost you, and thats assuming they decide your project is worthy enought to merit use of the license.





If you are writing purely for pleasure without aiming to publish for profit, then you can go ahead and do it anyway.