| previous by date | index | next by date |
| previous in topic | topic list | next in topic |
On 05/09/2011 08:20, Chris Dale wrote:Sorry - I meant trademark instead of patent regarding Star Wars. He would have to trademark names of any new characters he added with any new scenes.
Again, no he wouldn't. A trade mark is any sign capable of being represented graphically which is capable of distinguishing goods or services of one undertaking from those of other undertakings. Characters or character names in a work of fiction would not apply under such a set of circumstances - again, they would come under the aegis of copyright, although the definitions are much less clear than you may imagine.
To come back to your Star Wars analogy, there are many bits of third-party fictional works out there that deal with the various characters in the series, yet at no time does any of this breach copyright since the new book is an original artistic work. The fact that the book almost certainly has to have the Star Wars logo (or even just the name) on the front as a marketing device does mean that it has to acknowledge the marketing rights of George Lucas, and would have to pay him accordingly.
Trade mark law is actually quite a weird area. You cannot just have the rights to a trade mark under any circumstances - you have to register your trade mark in specific areas. The pop musical hot beat combo 'Wet Wet Wet' trademarked their name in categories related to printed material and won a case against an author who wrote a book about them which used their name in the title. In his summing up the judge mentioned that anyone writing a book about (say) hillwalking in the Lake District who had given his work the same title would have got away with it.
There are other cases where the use of a 'known' name in a totally different context to the original have got away with it. In these circumstances, I could quite legally produce the Ford Mellotron and market it as such. (It would probably only run for eight seconds). Even odder, Internet domain names can now breach trade mark legislation - after all, if the title of a book can, anything pretty much can. The glory days of 'Cyber Squatting' on domain names are well behind us, even if the domain's owner had no intention of doing anything with the name. Bizarre indeed.
About Streetly and the name Mellotron - yes they do not have the business rights to market products using the name, but as far as patent law is concerned, both Streetly and Markus are making Mellotrons.
Under patent legislation, one person holds the patent and can licence others to manufacture the product as it sees fit. Hence, Markus is making Mellotrons and Streetly are making mellotrons. There is a difference.
Mike