Quote:
Originally Posted by Nathan Campos
... I want to know what I should make for don't infringe the copyrights of these trademarks.
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Trademarks don't have copyrights.
Copyrights and trademarks are two totally different things, often (as in the US) handled by totally different parts of the government. In this case, it's trademarks you're worried about, not copyrights. The basic concept of a trademark is that it's intended to indicate the origin of goods (or, for a service mark, services). If you're not using a trademark to misrepresent the origin of something you're selling, you're not misappropriating it. You may, however, be infringing on it in a way likely to cause genericization -- that is, the kind of thing that happened to the zipper.
Trademarks, technically, are proper adjectives. The company that makes Rollerblades used to run ads (and still may, for all I know) telling writers that they're not allowed to write "Joe, your Rollerblades look silly"; they have to write "Joe, your Rollerblades brand of inline roller skates look silly." While this mostly made people simply write about any and every brand
except Rollerblades, they were the guys with the trademark.
A good way to find out the proper spelling, capitalization, and usage of any trademark is to check the owner's website. Usually they have something tucked away in "legal information" or thereabouts telling how they'd like their trademarks used, and what sort of a disclaimer (the usual one boils down to "people own things they own") they want in the book.