Quote:
Originally Posted by pdurrant
Thanks - I clearly misunderstood his post. Whoops.
I don't think the question of whether trademark trumps copyright has come to court. That is, whether it's legal to write a story about a character where the original stories involving the character are public domain, but the character's name is a trademark.
Since trademarks are very restricted in scope, I hope it wouldn't be possible to prevent publication by trademarking a name.
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In the US, I wouldn't be so sure about this. The estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs holds the trademark on Tarzan and John Carter (and probably several others--ERB was on top of intellectual property law in the 1920's). Their approval is required for new stories--including the recent Disney John Carter film, and the even more recent Baen collection
Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs. It seems like the Doyle estate, if it holds a valid trademark on Sherlock Holmes, should have the same power. Again, in the US. I realize that the character was created in the UK, where other laws may apply...