need advice.

[ThomasG81]

I have a sci fi novel that i've been working on for a number of years.
I discovered that about 11 years ago a computer game publisher created a fictional character as a promotional campaign for an unrelated computer game.
Neither this character or his surrounding universe is relevant to the content of my story.
My problem is the name of this character is called the name that i was planning to call my book.
Does anyone have an idea where i might stand legally and if its permitted to use the name (not the actual character) to use on an item of seperate media?
Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[The Judge]

There is, as yet, no copyright in a character's name in the law of England and Wales, and I'm pretty sure that's the case throughout the UK and the US, so that in itself is no bar to your using the name as the title of your novel. (There's no copyright in titles, either.)

However, if the game's character is very well known, especially if very distinctive, it would be best not to use it, not least because there might be allegations of passing off (ie that you were deliberately using the name to suggest it's connected with the computer game, so as to increase your sales).

In addition, it's possible the computer game publisher has registered the name as a trademark, in which case no one could use the name in situations/products for which it is trademarked, and it's likely that would include novels. You can check for UK trademarks for free, but I've no idea if you can check for US and other countries.

Meanwhile, since this isn't a publishing question as such, I'll move this over to Writing Discussion.

 

[ThomasG81]

we certainly aren't talking about sonic the hedgehog or mario notoriety. The character of the game franchise was only a promotional character and maybe at most was a downloadable skin for multiplayer.

From what i am reading it is not possible to trademark names under American law either but if anyone else knows more about it i would appreciate your input

 

[BAYLOR]

What about Changing the name of the character , slightly. Change one letter give him middle ignition or call him by fist initials and last name for example in Dallas you had J R Ewing. that rarely used Jr first man when they addressed they did so with his initials of J.R .

 

[ThomasG81]

I think you misunderstand.

The issue isnt the name of one of my characters, the issue is i plan to use the same name their character is called to call my novel.

There are not initials. So your suggestion about changing initials up doesnt apply here.
Its analogous to the naming convention of a superhero character name but with a 'the' prefix. Like 'The Incredible Hulk' But its not a superhero.
The idea of my main protagonist of my book can be described as John Wick meets Batman
But he isn't directly called the same name as the book. My MC is a collective of several who the book title applies to .
Without divulging the plot its difficult to explain.

Now that i think about it in the US and UK there are two different characters both called 'Dennis the Menace' and as far as i know theres been no legal disputes between the two creators. So perhaps there is a precedence.

 

[The Judge]

From what i am reading it is not possible to trademark names under American law either but if anyone else knows more about it i would appreciate your input

It certainly is possible to trademark names in US law -- "Harry Potter" is trademarked, for instance. (Copyright and trademarks are two separate issues, which may be confusing you, perhaps.)

Anyway, I checked and it is possible to search the US trademark office here Trademark Search and the UK one is here Search for a trade mark so I'd suggest you search for your title and see what turns up.

Now that i think about it in the US and UK there are two different characters both called 'Dennis the Menace' and as far as i know theres been no legal disputes between the two creators. So perhaps there is a precedence.

That's because of a coincidence that they were both created at the same time, and it was clear there had been no plagiarism/breach of copyright -- not only had neither creator had the opportunity of knowing what the other was doing, but although the names were the same the Menaces were themselves very different, both as to their characters and the way they were drawn. That being the case, there was no point in either creater/copyright owner taking action as no claim would have succeeded.

Neither name would have been trademarked at that point, since they'd only just been created, and although it looks like the name is TM protected in both countries now, I imagine they've long since come to some agreement so that the US one is protected in the US and the UK one is protected here and neither infringes on the other's territory.

 

[ThomasG81]

looks like the title isnt coming up under either of those.

 

[Swank]

This is a real Fugazi situation.

Generally speaking, it is going to be a problem if the other party strongly feels that you are both working in the same genre and/or media.

You could always ask them.



It is remarkable how often this happens with films, and how close in time many of them are:

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls054209917/

 

[paranoid marvin]

Ah, I'd always be under the misaprehension that the other Dennis was an Amercanised version of the British Menace.

 

[Karapace]

I have a sci fi novel that i've been working on for a number of years.
I discovered that about 11 years ago a computer game publisher created a fictional character as a promotional campaign for an unrelated computer game.
Neither this character or his surrounding universe is relevant to the content of my story.
My problem is the name of this character is called the name that i was planning to call my book.
Does anyone have an idea where i might stand legally and if its permitted to use the name (not the actual character) to use on an item of seperate media?
Thanks in advance for any help.

I think it largely depends on how unique the character's name is. For instance a book title called "Lara Croft" or "Tony Stark: inventor of flying suits"might raise litigation (incidentally "Marvelman" a British Comic book character pre-dating the Marvel comics was forced to change to "Miracleman" to avoid to cost of litigation by the more powerful Marvel Corporation). However "Thor" is public domain (being a Viking god) or "Dave Smith"

 

[ThomasG81]

i just thought i might be able to solve the problem by pluralising my title.

 

[ThomasG81]

This is a real Fugazi situation.

Generally speaking, it is going to be a problem if the other party strongly feels that you are both working in the same genre and/or media.

You could always ask them.

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I could ask but that risks creating some sort of reverse-Streisand effect unnecessarily.

I think it largely depends on how unique the character's name is.

I don't think its unique at all. Its actually a verb and one without many synonyms.

 

[Swank]

This is only a potential problem if you are going to self publish. If you are shopping it to publishers, their lawyers can figure it out long after the ink is dry on your contract.

 

[ThomasG81]

Think i'm just going to pluralise and be done with it.