In a message dated 3/12/01 4:34:06 PM Eastern Standard Time, tavia@btinternet.com writes:
<< Doesn't this depend on the country? In the UK, you certainly don't have to trademark brand-names for UK use unless you want to, prior use will still apply (within a given field). At least that's what I got told when I looked into trademarking all my company names. >>
I'm sorry, but that question I can't definitively answer. It appears to me that US copyright law is very similar if not the same as international (and UK) copyright law. Whether or not the trademark laws are also the same, I have to admit I don't know. I can say, though, that trademark and copyright are two different things and you *can not* copyright a character name (or situation). You can only copyright an individual "thing" in a certain form. Although there are some protections regarding derivative works... and that's where you get into the whole profit/non-profit, commercial/non-commercial, etc. debate of fan fiction as a whole. Generally, my personal opinion is that fan fiction, fanzines and fan art qualify for fair use. As there has never been, to my knowledge, a court case on the subject, there has never been a ruling made, one way or another. (I had a script writer tell me once that George Lucas HAD successfully sued, but she could never tell me a single particular of the case and two different lawyers attempted to find any record of it and found nothing. I would have found it odd if Lucas had indeed sued since George Lucas himself, much like Terry Nation, used to actively encourage fans to send copies of their fanzines to his office. In fact, LucasFilm took it a step further. They actually PAID for the copies (they requested two of each issue).)
Annie