: Re: Using names of video game, movie, and comic book characters and group names in novel, but as tribute to them I'm planning on writing about a merc group in the not-so-far future that is named

@Bryan361

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My short answer would be: Don't.

Long answer: As paulzag says, you can't claim a copyright to a name, but you can claim a trademark. It's not illegal to use someone else's trademark in a story. Like if you write in your story, "Bob stopped at Walmart to buy a Coke", no one is going to sue you, and they would almost certainly lose if they tried. But if you try to use someone else's character in your story, that's entirely different. Then you're violating their trademark. One valid claim for trademark violation is that someone is creating confusion between your product and his. If I made my own brand of soft drink and called it "Coke", the Coca Cola company would have every right to sue me, because people might buy my product instead of theirs, or might decide that mine tastes awful and then not buy theirs. But if I write in a book that a character drank a Coke, no person with an ounce of rationality is going to think that my book is a soft drink. So -- I don't know anything about Tales of Destiny, but I just did a quick web search and find there's a character named Rutee Kaltrea -- if you wrote a story in which you said, "Bob really liked Rutee Kaltrea, the character from Tales of Destiny, and he tried to model his life after her", I doubt anyone would try to sue you. Any sensible reader would instantly see that you are talking about someone else's story, not trying to claim that you have any connection with that author. But if you named your character Rutee Kaltrea, and made it sound like this was a story in the Tales of Destiny universe, you would be very vulnerable to a trademark lawsuit, because then you are violating their trademark. If your stories are different enough from Tales of Destiny and it's clear that you are saying that your characters adopted these names as a tribute, you'd have a good defense in a lawsuit. But a judge MIGHT say that the case is ambiguous enough that readers might confuse your story for a Tales of Destiny story.

I think the practical conclusion is: If they cared and sued you, they can probably afford a lot of hot-shot lawyers and you can't. Even if you win, it could cost you a fortune. The practical advice is to stay as far away from any copyright or trademark violation as you possibly can. Unless there is some really compelling reason why your story just doesn't make sense unless the characters use these code names, while at the same time the story has nothing to do with Tales of Destiny, then I'd say simply: don't.

To that I'd add: Why do you think this is a good idea? Of course I know nothing about your story other than what you said in this question. Can you safely assume that ALL your readers are Tales of Destiny fans? I'd never heard of Tales of Destiny until I read this post.

In general, tying your story to someone else's story is usually a bad idea. It makes you look unoriginal. Like you weren't clever enough to think of your own character names and so you had to steal someone else's. If people like the other story, they may say "oh cool, all these references to that great story". Or they may resent you "ruining" the story. If they don't like the other story, it may just be annoying. And if they haven't read or watched it, it may just be confusing.

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