Quote:
Originally Posted by mr ploppy
But you can trademark names and images of characters. Both Hells Angels and Skinhead are registered trademarks, for example. And what I have in mind for Humpty Dumpty definitely wouldn't be approved by anyone who could claim ownership of that character.
I could play safe and call him Dumpy Humpy (Humpy Dumpy would make it sound like obesity porn), but I would still want an egg-man type character on the cover. (Eggman is also a trademark, used as an alternative name for Dr Robotnik from the Sonic games).
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I differ, though is possible that you have a different law in your country.
Let me be clear, I believe the following is perfectly usable.
"... and there were 3 skinheads by the light post on the corner."
"... some said he had been in the Hells Angels in his youth and had spent 10 years in prison before he entered the Service of Our Lord."
Now when I said titles weren't protected, I mean that if someone had a book called "The Golden Sands," or one called "Black Stallion" then you could also write a book of a similar title. Sometimes people like to help their causes and avoid conflicts up front, and say something like "Black Stallion" , ..., of the High Plains." with the second line in smaller type or at least removed from the initial line.
Personally I would avoid something totally identical for several reasons, but I believe it is entirely legal.
A trademark is somewhat different, and I have run into that before. My wife had a incorporated shop with a name "Something" and we found out that there was another shop in the same state about 300 miles away named that. The man claimed prior ownership to a sales person with a clear threat of suing, but then we met (bought from her in fact) the lady that had the International trademark on that name on her line of jewelry and she just laughed. As a practical matter, we finally just said the name is "Something , ..., of Somewhere." and that precluded any problems. The man claimed we had copied the image from his, but it was the image of a plant which is not copyrightable, and one of our children had drawn the original and we had that artwork.
Anyway, nothing ever came from it, but we did cover our bases ahead of time just to avoid any trouble. My wife wanted to run a shop, not litigate.