Are all “Websters” dictionaries published by Merriam-Webster?
The short answer is, “No.” The end of the 19th century brought G. & C. Merriam Company copyright and trademark difficulties created by the expiration of early copyrights on Webster’s work, the sale of rights to some of his abridged dictionaries, and the expiration in 1889 of the copyright on Merriam-Webster’s 1847 edition. The respect that Merriam-Webster had earned for its Webster’s dictionaries over the course of fifty years was a desirable asset that unscrupulous companies found they could exploit simply by calling any dictionary they produced or reprinted Webster’s. Merriam-Webster went to court time and again over copyrights and trademarks. One famous suit, lodged against the Saalfield Publishing Company in 1917, resulted in an injunction enjoining that company from using the title Webster’s Dictionary without the disclaimer, “This dictionary is not published by the original publishers of Webster’s Dictionary, or by their successors.” Later suits allowed the use of the name Webste
