: Re: What's "fair use" for borrowing someone else's invented term? Let's say I'm writing a sci-fi novel. I want to use a word which another writer has coined, which has become well-recognized outside

@Vandalay250

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First off, "grok" is not copyrighted; you can't copyright individual words, even made-up ones. Therefore fair use (a defense against an infringement claim) does not apply. That doesn't mean it's impermissible, in fact it almost certainly is fine.

It's also not trademarked, as it is not being used by the Heinlein estate to identify a product or service. And as it is not an invention, it is also not patented. So from an intellectual property standpoint you are covered.

The only real problem you might run into is if you wrote something so similar to SIASL that your story might be legitimately considered a derivative work. Even in that situation it is not always a slam-dunk case, but your use of the word "grok" might be considered evidence that you were aware you were copying that specific work. But since you don't seem to be doing that, I don't foresee a difficulty there either.

Adoption of terminology used by one writer by others is common in the science fiction field. "Robot" (which was invented by a writer outside the SF field, though Asimov seems to have coined the word "robotics") and "ansible" are two that spring to mind. Writers tend to let such borrowings happen without objection because they have certainly done their share.

All that said, this is America and you can be sued for anything at any time, for any reason or for no reason at all. The fact that any case against you for using "grok" in your own novel would probably be thrown out doesn't mean you can't be sued. But that's not a reason not to write it. You could be sued by someone who thinks your villain is too much like themselves too.

I would not bother with the dialog explaining what a "grok" is in your story. SF readers familiar with SIASL (i.e. most of them) will immediately understand, and readers not familiar with it will get it when you show them what the grok can do. If you must have such dialog, please oh please for once make it so the other person gets it rather than needing it explained. "A grok? Oh, because her function is to understand things, right?"

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