: Re: Using Trademarked Public Domain Characters as supporting characters in story I've been trying to find a decent answer to this question for days but no luck so far. I've decided to pose the

@Karen856

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Unless you have immensely deep pockets and don't mind spending huge amounts to defend against a lawsuit, whether it's lawful or not to use a character like that matters little. Even a lawsuit you eventually win will put you into the poorhouse.

Generally speaking, the rule is: "Don't use other people's characters without permission. Ever!" Getting permission from a trademark holder is usually either very expensive (think licensing fees) or impossible, and that's where you have to worry about it. You needn't be concerned with the Burroughs estate -- as you note, all the original Tarzan materials are in public domain. Your concern is trademark from the movies and TV (with a movie having dropped just last year). Bottom line: there is no way the trademark owners will let go of the property, because money.

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