The American Mind

Next Saturday, the final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is released. Like previous book launches this one will have parties filled with costumed kids (and adults). But this year Warner Brothers and Scholastic is tossing out a few legal speed bumps:

In the past few weeks, Warner’s London legal office has sent e-mails to booksellers and party organizers around the country, warning them against unauthorized celebrating, under the threat of legal action. ‘‘[Your event] appears to fall outside our guidelines,’’ said one e-mail. ‘‘Therefore, HARRY POTTER cannot be used as a theme for your event.’’

Warner Bros. says it’s only trying to protect young Potter fans from inappropriate, non-family-friendly celebrating. But to many booksellers, it looks like an excessive effort to make sure no one benefits financially from its trademarks.

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Before they could receive their copies of ‘‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,’’ booksellers had to sign a contract with Scholastic. Besides agreeing to keep the books secure until 12:01 a.m. Saturday, they had to agree to a list of guidelines, mainly focused on keeping them from straying beyond the publisher’s rights. One item says, ‘‘Please ensure that you keep to our policy: that the book marketing campaign should be separate and distinct from the Warner Bros. film campaign and licensed merchandise programs’’ — meaning neither images from the movies nor Harry Potter products can be used to promote the book.

It’s the section about parties that has booksellers grumbling. Most of the points are uncontroversial — parties must be decent and safe, nonpolitical, held no earlier or later than 24 hours from the release hour. Other conditions have taken some booksellers by surprise: ‘‘No fees are charged for admission or any activities at the event … no third parties are associated with the event in any way … the event is small-scale, local, noncommercial, not-for-profit.’’

Some booksellers had planned to sell tickets to their events, mainly to cover the cost of keeping stores open until after midnight. And many events are being cosponsored or assisted by other stores and businesses — all clearly third parties. Now some booksellers and community groups are having to revise their plans.

‘‘We have to jump through 45 hoops in order to celebrate and sell their book,’’ said Elizabeth Bluemle, owner of The Flying Pig Bookstore in Shelburne, Vt. ‘‘It feels frustrating to a lot of booksellers. The independents were the ones who discovered Harry Potter, who got it in the eyes of the national market.’’

It’s not smart business to leave your customers a bad taste in their mouths. Lucky for them they’re getting arrogant with the final book.

“This Time, the Potter Parties Won’t Fly”