For almost 14 years, Judith Ré published a series of updates of her book ‘Social Savvy: A Teenager’s Guide to Feeling Confident in Any Situation with Simon & Schuster. It was based on “etiquette seminars” she taught around the country, and as the classes and the books were so popular she registered “Social Savvy” with the trademark office. “So,” writes Alex Beam in his newest Boston Globe column, “imagine her surprise when, almost immediately after ”Social Savvy” went out of print last year, Barnes & Noble‘s publishing unit slammed two new books in to print: The Girl’s Guide to Social Savvy and The Guy’s Guide to Social Savvy.” Ré is suing, says Beam, and court papers in the case show the author of the B&N books, Jodi R.R. Smith, and her editor, Hallie Einhorn, “were aware of Ré’s work, but decided to forge ahead with their not-so-savvy usurpation anyway.” Seem like a clear cut case of trademark infringement? It may be, says Beam, but Ré may still lose in the end. “It came out during depositions that B&N was thinking of releasing a blizzard of shlocko ‘Social Savvy’ books, e.g. ”Social Savvy Guide to Business,’ ‘Social Savvy Guide to Weddings,’ etc. Basically, the $4.8 billion bookselling and publishing conglomerate is hoping to crush Judith Ré with expensive court costs.”