Writing Fiction

» merne247 - movies titles, real names, brand names, etc.

When writing your novel, are you allowed to use real movie/book titles, names of, for example, actors and authors, and brand names without legal clearances, etc? If not, what are alternatives?

-- posted by merne247

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» Jennifer Jensen - movies titles, real names, brand names, etc.

In response to movies titles, real names, brand names, etc. posted by merne247:

That's a great question, Merne, and I have definite views on the subject, but I need to first state the caveat that I am not an attorney or an expert on copyright, trademarks, etc., and that this is not legal advice.

With that said, here's my understanding:

Some things can be copyrighted and some can't. A book title can't, so there can be several books with the same title. ("Through a Glass Darkly" comes to mind.) I would think a movie would fall into the same category. And public figures don't get the expectation of privacy the rest of us do, which is why you get unauthorized biographies. So you should be able to mention any of those names without worry, in the sense of "She stopped reading 'A is for Alibi' when he approached," or " 'I think Orlando Bloom is soooo cute!' she said." Although if you want to say something nasty, I'd make sure it's in a character's dialogue!

Brand names are a different story. A company can lose its trademark if the trademark name is used regularly in a generic sense. I think the company can even have to prove that they're protecting the name, which is why you see ads in Writer's Digest reminding us that Xerox is not a verb, and pleading for us to say "Scotch brand cellophane tape" instead of Scotch tape.

I'm fine with this in non-fiction articles. In fiction, I have a problem with it. My character is not going to ask someone to pass her the Kleenex brand facial tissues! So I have three guidelines I use. First, a name brand usually isn't necessary, so I often use "tissues" or "tape" instead of "Kleenex" or "Scotch tape." Second, if my character would say "Scotch tape," well, I figure that it's dialogue and she should talk the way she talks. And third, if I do use a name brand, I make sure to capitalize it, even if I don't include the rest of their preferred phrase. "She chugged her Coke," instead of "She chugged her coke" or "She chugged her Coca-cola brand soft drink."

So that's my two cents worth. I'll give a heads-up to a couple other writers on Suite and see if they have comments to add. And good luck with your novel!

PS--if you want to put someone else's characters actually into your story, that's a whole different problem!

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» kswarts - Re: brand names & titles in novels

I can relate to the temptation to use someone else's characters in your story--if I was paid for the ideas I've had for sequels or alternate versions, I'd probably make a lot more money than from the work I have to write from scratch! Alas, most authors retain exclusive rights to characters they have created, as well as to the exact words used in their works.

Writer's Digest magazine used to have a fairly regular column on trademarks-as-synonyms--you might see what information you can find in their back issues.

-- posted by kswarts

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» merne247 - movies titles, real names, brand names, etc.

In response to movies titles, real names, brand names, etc. posted by Writerrider:

thank you for your response. no, i did not plan on using another writer's character(s) in my story, but my main character works at a library, and i needed him to be able to list off a few titles a girl is checking out (Perfume by Patrick Suskind being one of them) and i wanted to make sure that was ok. or if, perhaps, she's checking out a movie, if i could say the title of that movie without any kind of infringement. again, thank you for your advice. this is my first novel (technically second; my first was a trainwreck) and i kind of needed it. and, should we meet again, my name is matt.

-- posted by merne247

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» Jennifer Jensen - movies titles, real names, brand names, etc.

In response to movies titles, real names, brand names, etc. posted by merne247:

If a library setting is where the names/titles come in, you are far away from any problems, Matt. Good luck with your book, and let us know how it goes!

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