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I would like to create a stamp collection book/journal about National Parks, and one would be about U.S. National Parks.

Am I infringing any copyright or trademarks if I list the U.S. National Parks? Ideally each page will be setup as a journal with prompts regarding the experience at the park, personal thoughts and at the and a box where the visitor can collect a stamp, if they want to.

Many thanks in advance!

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  • Stamps? MAking stamps is only allowed to the USPS.
    – Trish
    Commented Feb 29 at 18:12
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    I think she means rubber stamps with the NP logo on it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_stamp
    – GBG
    Commented Feb 29 at 18:46
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    All U.S. government works are in the public domain for copyright. And, they aren't true trademarks. But there might be individual statutes protecting government symbols and seals in some other way.
    – ohwilleke
    Commented Feb 29 at 18:51
  • @ohwilleke Works created by the US federal government are generally in the public domain. But that isn't necessarily true of works created by a contractor for the federal government, or for works created by state governments, or for works transferred to the government. It is certainly possible for the US government to hold copyrights - NASA code developed by a contractor who's not a federal employee, for example, would likely not be in the public domain.
    – Nuclear Hoagie
    Commented Feb 29 at 19:14
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    @Trish It refers to the popular Passport to Your National Parks program, where each National Park has a rubber stamp at the visitor center, and people collect them in a passport book.
    – user71659
    Commented Feb 29 at 19:23

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A list of places is usually going to be a purely factual matter, not subject to copyright. The US government does not generally claim copyright in its works, and I'm not familiar with any sort of US limitation on such a thing. There may be graphical trademarks you should avoid, but as long as you're putting yourself out as an independent party, they're shouldn't be much of a problem.

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  • This answer would be improved with references to support it.
    – ohwilleke
    Commented Mar 1 at 15:24
  • The question seems more about trademark than copyright, since it's talking about the names of national parks.
    – Barmar
    Commented Jul 28 at 22:22

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