That seems unreasonable but who am I to say.  I read books all the time with song quotes in it or quotes from Shakespeare and I doubt they're paying him!

 

Note: I am not a lawyer, but I did a decent amount of research on this prior to my first book as I have a well known action figure make an appearance in it (not the character itself, a toy based on it).

You should be okay with just a mention such as that. 

As a paranoia check maybe a line like: "All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners" in your copyright notice.

 

Song lyrics are a no-no. Old quotes are ok b/c of the way copyright law works. It protects for a max number of years and then it becomes part of the public domain at which time it can be used.

Characters used in satire should be fair use, but it wont stop someone from suing you. I've been up in the air on this stuff. It seems excessive at times, but I don't want to deal with it, so I usually change it to something else. I had a Scrooge McDuck reference in one of my recent titles and ended up removing it. If there's another way to say it, I usually do it that way.

 

Thanks guys.

I probably should call the lawyer. I can just see this tome becoming an international best seller and someone filing an action.

 

I still think you're in the clear.  Once again, not legal, advice, but look at just about any big selling contemporary novel and you're going to see pop culture references all over the place (Jim Butcher's Dresden Files is a good example).

As long as you're not defaming or libeling, a one line mention such as you wrote, Joe, shouldn't get you into any hot water.

 

Check trademark. Characters can be trademarked which opens another can of worms. At the end of the day, even if it is fair use, its whether or not the company that owns the character feels like suing over it. Im not sure how WB does stuff, but I've heard you don't want to piss off Disney. Would like to hear what your lawyer says on the matter.

 

To be honest, I'd just play it safe and say "That thing looks like a cartoon shotgun after someone's put a finger in the barrel."  No trademark issues & it also has the benefit of being accessible to the small percentage of readers who may have somehow made it through life without awareness of one or both of those well-known characters.

 

It can't be copyright because that's not an actual sentence that would have occurred in the cartoon, but it could very well be a trademark issue.  Plus, if the owners of the cartoon don't like being in your book, they could take exception and that could get unpleasant (and expensive).  I'd write around it or consult a lawyer, depending on how important it is to you.

 

This is a pretty good summary of what an author can and can't get away with:

http://www.rightsofwriters.com/2010/12/can-i-mention-brand-name-products-in-my.html

Short version: If you don't insult a brand and don't use the name generically (i.e. using "xerox" as a synonym for photocopying in general) you should be golden.

 

I think you're okay on that. You're making a simple comparison to a well-known pop cultural reference.

Now, if you brought either Bugs Bunny or Elmer Fudd into your story as characters, or if you used their names in the title of your book, then yes, I would expect that you would receive some cards and letters from Warner Brothers.

 

Ask a lawyer about the trademarks.

In an episode of Family Guy they went trick-or-treating and came home to look at their loot. They spill the candy and the logos are recognizable but altered, and they used synonyms for all the names. At the end of the bit, Stewie said something like, "This is why I hate TV." When they did their Star Wars parodies, they had to get permission first. Before the full movie parodies, Fox's legal department was concerned that they had too many Star Wars jokes in their episodes. It seems to reach a point of critical mass when you are references other people's work too often and you need permission.

That's important if you have multiple references. Disney owns Marvel's Avengers and Lucas Arts. That's a ton of intellectual property, so a few references to different things could be all infringing one corporation's property.

 

"That thing looks like Elmer Fudd's shotgun after Bugs Bunny put his finger in the barrel."

As many have said, "I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV."

That being said, when I was in both the book-publishing biz as an editor and while I was at newspapers, I had to learn a lot about copyright laws.

For that bit of text, you are LIKELY to be in the clear.

Casual references to pop-culture figures are not copyright-protected.

It would be the same as if someone writing a romance wrote something like: "Since being assigned to work together, I felt like I was playing Lois to his Clark, but Brent was no Superman."

Those characters are copyrightable and trademarkable, but they aren't appearing in your novel. They're being referenced in a pop-culture context. It'd be like referring to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. You can do it, so long as you tread lightly and don't make it a negative reference.

(A negative reference is probably equally legal to a positive one, but more likely to draw legal attention.)

For example, "They were the superstars of our one-horse town, the Castle Rock version of Brad and Angelina." (Not likely to draw any ire.)

But, for example, "They were brash, arrogant, rich, and political, the Brad and Angelina of Castle Rock. No one liked them." (Probably still legal, but Brad and Angelina can afford better lawyers than you can, and even if they lose, they can drain you of money by forcing you to defend your work in court... wanna risk it?)

Lawyers like this:

What you can't do, however, is have Bugs and Elmer in your cover art due to this line. Their graphic depictions would indeed draw litigious attention.

As for text, you can make homage-like references like this.

What would get you in trouble is if you started quoting a Bugs Bunny cartoon written by someone from Warner Brothers. That would start to veer toward infringement, just like with song lyrics.

You could get away with a "What's up, Doc?" perhaps, but I wouldn't take it beyond that.

Helpful?

 

First, this is a trademark issue, not a copyright issue.

As for the question at hand, I "think" your biggest concern is whether or not Warner Bros will take offense at your usage of the characters names. Not sure if your usage could fall into that category, but I think that's where any concern lies.

 

First, this is a trademark issue, not a copyright issue.

It's both, actually.

 

Here's another copyright question. If I quote something said on an email list, do I need to contact the person who made the quote and get permission? or can I just quote, and say "in a private correspondence" or something like that?

 

It is not a copyright issue, as the sentence does not actually come from anything. You didn't pull a line from a book or movie or song. You are merely mentioning the characters. This is no different than saying "Harry stopped at McDonalds" or "Joe jumped in his old Ford truck" or "Kevin picked up a copy of Harry Potter."

It is not a trademark issue, because it is an incidental reference that is not central to your book. Again, nobody pays McDonald's every time a character in a book goes through the McDonald's Drive-thru window. You are allowed to use brand names and trademarked items in fiction so long as you use them correctly. You can't say "she blew her nose in a kleenex." You have to say "she blew her nose in a Kleenex tissue." You don't have a character "make a xerox" instead the character would "make a copy on the Xerox copier."

There is nothing to stop anyone from suing anyone. WB could send you a cease and desist letter simply because some webcrawling trademark software finds the words in your preview and nobody bothers to check with a living person first. But as much as I stress to people to respect the intellectual property of their fellow creatives, sometimes we really overthink these things to the point where we can't function.

You are not copying any actual copyright material.
You aren't using the trademark incorrectly.
You are not in any way challenging the IP rights of the owner.
Your work doesn't negatively influence the brand.
The reference is incidental in nature.
You are not attempting to infrindge on anyone's right to publicity.
You aren't using the reference as a method of diluting the brand by trying to capitalize on it.

 

Trademark and copyright attorney here. I was all geared up to write a response (after my standard disclaimer about this being legal information as opposed to legal advice and nothing could be construed as constituting an attorney-client privilege) but instead I'll just say "What Julie said."

I've been saying it so much lately that I honestly think we need a smilie icon to automatically say it. Betsy? Harvey?

 

Here's another copyright question. If I quote something said on an email list, do I need to contact the person who made the quote and get permission? or can I just quote, and say "in a private correspondence" or something like that?

As a matter of common decency and courtesy, you should NEVER publish something like that in a book without permission. First, it's just rude. Depending on the list, people may have a certain expectation of privacy and not want their thoughts shared with people outside the group. Second, you run the risk of backlash if the person decides to go public and claim they never made the comment or the comment is taken out of context. Third, in many cases, without knowing the source of the quote, the meaning may be lost. A uncredited quote has no credibility to a lot of people. The difference between an uncredited quote and making up a quote is nil if people don't trust you personally to begin with.

Copyright law has not been clear on this and there has been no major case to set a precident. But it's just would feel a bit dirty quoting someone from an email list without permission for a book.

 

You could just say Elmer (instead of Elmer Fudd) and say that rabbit (instead of Bugs Bunny). Problem gone.

 

You could just say Elmer (instead of Elmer Fudd) and say that rabbit (instead of Bugs Bunny). Problem gone.

Wabbit.

 

Wabbit.

Waskley Wabbit

 

I SECOND WASKELY WABBIT!!!

 

You could just say Elmer (instead of Elmer Fudd) and say that rabbit (instead of Bugs Bunny). Problem gone.

No, problem not gone.

First, from a creative standpoint, the only point to reference the cartoon is for pop culture effect. The more you strip the actual proper names from the reference, the less the reference means. Just saying "Elmer" and "that rabbit" dates the story because only people who grew up on Looney Toons will immediately see the reference. For younger readers (anyone under 30!) stripping the identity from the characters means eliminating the key data point that makes the connection in the brain. Everyone knows who Bugs Bunny is. Not everyone will understand "that rabbit" is meant to refer to Bugs Bunny.

For example, I know who Rihanna is, but I don't listen to her music. I know her as a pop culture reference, and if I read "She dressed like she thought she was Rihanna." I would understand the reference despite not listening to her music. If, on the other hand, I read "She dressed like she thought she was that woman who sang [insert title of a Rihanna song here]" I would have NO CLUE what you meant, because I can't identify the person based on a song title.

Second, all you are doing is creating the appearance that you are trying to mask the trademark usage, which makes you look guilty. The same stupid algorithm program that hunts trademark and copyright violations can just as easily search for "Elmer" and "rabbit" in a sentence as it can full names. Essentially, all you've done is the equivalent of renaming a certain book "Larry Motter and the Sorcerer's Rock" and hoping nobody notices. So now not only has the rights holder noticed you, but you've ticked them off by deliberately trying to hide what you are doing.

Even if you were originally on solid legal ground in the original use, you've now given the rights holder ammo in court. And all you need is one stupid judge to say "You obviously were trying to gain off this IP's brand and tried to hide your crime!" to get burned.

For a look at just how bizarre this can all get, I give you the Eight Most Insane Trademark Lawsuits.

 

For a look at just how bizarre this can all get, I give you the Eight Most Insane Trademark Lawsuits.