Homepage
Login
New Post
Profile
From a U.S. Perspective:
Edgar Rice Buroughs Inc, is quite aggressive in their pursuit of trademark violation in protecting Tarzan... that said, it's not a copyright and Tarzan is fair game to use... however that's only in the United States. The King of the Apes is still copyrighted in other countries and if your story hits that market they are within their right to sue.
The Trademark issue is a little weird and it's unsettle in the court of law (the cases have all been settled out of court, which means no judgement, which means the question can I do this hasn't been asked. Once it goes through a full trial, it's a different matter).
All in all, I'd avoid it. Certainly a wild jungle man is not new to ERB, so you could make your own and find some ways to make him different from Tarzan.
Of course, this goes out the door if Tarzan is being used under Fair Use (that is, he's being used in parody or satire) than there is that claim.
Similarly, if he only appears in the story but is never named in the dialog, that could get around it... like I said, there are a billion jungle heroes of similar ilk and you could take inspiration from any one of them. Seeing as how it's a side character, do we need to go into the backstory? If no, that's good. Do we need to know his name? No, good? The less he looks like Tarzan and more like the archtype, the better. For example, Marvel has a number of characters that have powers similar to Superman... that's fine... they aren't claiming to be Superman and they have enough differences. What got Captain Marvel in trouble in DC vs Fawcett was that Captain Marvel had some art that looked like Superman (and more importantly, was out performing Superman in sales). They may have similar powers, but they are definitely not alike at all.
(0)More posts by @LarsenBagley300
Terms of Use Privacy policy Contact About Cancellation policy © selfpublishingguru.com2024 All Rights reserved.