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Originally Posted by SleepyBob
Except that those are creations of Rowling, so would be covered by copyright.
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Only the names (and only some of those) were her creations, not the ideas. She clearly based her "House Elves" on the Hob from English folklore. And the notion of a magic-less class of people looked down upon by those WITH magic was not her idea, only the term "muggle." So while you may not want to call them "House Elves," there's really nothing stopping someone from having household magical slave-like creatures that can be set free (or banished) by giving them articles of clothing (even in a book that has a wizarding school setting). Same for dementors. The word was not invented by Rowling. It's been used to describe evil fearsome creatures before and after Harry Potter. Owning ideas is much harder than people think. Rowling's characters may be her own, but she (and any author) will always have an uphill battle trying to claim ownership of ideas, settings, situations and the like (not that she's interested in trying).