A lesson in courtroom etiquette

Roughly 10 years ago, I wrote a magazine article about Judith Ré and her Social Savvy seminar at what was then the only Ritz hotel in Boston. ''Miss Judith's" etiquette seminars for elementary school-age children were already something of a Boston institution. Parents sent young Carter or Reenie to her daylong tutorial to learn that ''Yo! Fo' Shizzle!" was not the proper way to answer the household telephone.

Ré taught the seminars in several other cities, and to adults. She also wrote a book called ''Social Savvy: A Teenager's Guide to Feeling Confident in Any Situation," published in 11 editions by Simon & Schuster from 1991 until 2004. She registered ''Social Savvy" as a trademark in 1991, renewed it in 2001, and still teaches the seminars at the Ritz and elsewhere.

So 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."

Here's another astonishing parallelism: The books' author, Jodi R. R. Smith of Marblehead, runs a business called Mannersmith, which once recommended Ré's book on its website. And Smith once taught an etiquette seminar called ''Social Savvy: Manners for the Modern World" at the Lenox Hotel.

Coincidence, or something more?

A lot more, according to a four-count trademark infringement claim filed by Ré last year and slated to be heard in federal court by judge Richard Stearns on May 4. The court papers seem to demonstrate quite convincingly that both Smith and her editor at Barnes & Noble, Hallie Einhorn, were aware of Ré's work, but decided to forge ahead with their not-so-savvy usurpation anyway.

If a smoking gun were needed, how about Smith's Nov. 20, 2003 e-mail to Einhorn, in which Smith wonders about purloining the ''Social Savvy" title: ''Obviously the big words in the title are 'Social Savvy,' " Smith wrote. ''I just want to make sure we aren't going to get an angry letter from their lawyers for using 'Social Savvy' in our title."

How very prescient.

Smith and Barnes & Noble did get a cease and desist letter from Ré's lawyers, and after refusing to back away from their project, they got the current lawsuit. Smith's lawyer didn't return my call -- what kind of etiquette is that? I ask you -- so I was left to peruse the court filings. One of the defendants' more hilarious ''affirmative defenses" is that ''there is no likelihood of confusion in the marketplace" between the two Social Savvy mavens. Instead of returning my call, Smith sent me an e-mail: ''As an etiquette consultant, and because the case is currently in litigation, it would be inappropriate and indiscreet for me to comment right now." A Barnes & Noble spokeswoman also declined to comment.

What's really going on here? 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. ''I'm just one person. I'm doing this because I enjoy what I do," Ré says. ''I have to believe that honesty will rise to the top."

Free plug
Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Szep always let me repair to his office couch when the stress of daily journalism gave me the vapors; now I can return the favor. On the evening of May 4, after you watch the rip-off artists from Barnes & Noble argue for summary judgment in the Judith Ré lawsuit, take a short walk down to the Adesso Gallery near the Four Seasons on Boylston Street for the opening of a two-week retrospective of Paul's political cartooning.

Signed prints will be available for sale, with a portion of the proceeds going to the Massachusetts Chapter of the ALS Association, benefiting research into ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. Paul has done a drawing of Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, signed by both of them, which will be auctioned off as part of the association's ''Curt's Pitch for ALS" project.

Alex Beam is a Globe columnist. His e-dress is beam@globe.com.