Annie:

Just a note on copyright law. You can *not* copyright a character name or situation. You can only trademark a name... and even then the trademark isn't considered to have been violated unless the use of the name could possibly be confused (by the public) with the original. As far as I know, Blakes 7 has no character names trademarked (and neither do most television shows or movies... Star Wars is one that comes to mind that has character names actually trademarked).

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.

Tavia