Is it a copyright/trademark violation for indirect use of famous brand names in product taglines? Is there any copyright or trademark violation if a company uses a tag line 'Inspired by [Some Famous Brand]' (Note: This is for the marketing tag line, not logo) The objective is to associate one's design, quality etc to a well known famous brand. Example: 'Technology Inspired by Google Search Engine' 'A film inspired by the Starwars Saga' 'The next Reddit style forum' 'A google style search for your ecommerce platform' Note, the product is not in direct competition with the famous brand. Its just a marketing strategy.
The rule on a tagline is really not significantly different from that on a logo, or brand name. If anywhere in the packaging, advertising, or promotion of a product or service, a registered or protected trademark of another is used, without permission from the holder, in such a way that a reasonable consumer might plausible believe that the product is made by the same maker, or comes from the same source, as the product associated with the trademark, or that the product has been approved or endorsed or sponsored by the mark holder, that would be trademark infringement. Phrases such as &quot;inspired by&quot; or &quot;google-style&quot; might have such an effct, depending on the whole of the circumstances. A disclaimer, such as &quot;This film is in no way approved or enforced by the creators of Star Wars, it merely uses similar ideas&quot; might, if sufficiently prominent, help avoid possible confusion. Comparative advertising such as &quot;far more exciting than Star Wars ever was&quot; generally makes it clear that the item is not endorsed, and indeed is to some extent competitive. That is generally considered an example of nominative use and is not infringement. But the more similarity is implied, the more consumer confusion is invited, and the more the new product seems to trade on the reputation of the established product. That is exactly what a trademark is intended to prevent.
This is known as "film novelization"(For example, the novelizations of the Star Wars movies are film novelizations, created under license), and is copyright infringement unless made under a license from the copyright holder. Specifically, you would be making a derivative work of the original, by changing the medium. One of the rights provided by copyright is the right to control the transference from one medium into another. This, in my (non-lawyer) opinion, is unlikely to be found as fair use. There are four test factors for determining fair use(source), decided on a case by case basis: Transformative Character of the Derivative Work: Unlikely to be found in your favor, as nothing is transformed ("I don't change anything, the name are the same, everything is the same, it's just a conversion to textual form"). Nature of the Original Work: A narrative entertainment film, thus unlikely to be found in your favor. Amount and Substantiality of the Portion Taken: You've taken all of it; not in your favor. Effect on the Potential Market: You are essentially providing a free version of what copyright holders can often charge for; negative effect on their potential market. Not in your favor.
A statement by a fictional character is part of the fiction, and so is normally protected by copyright. A short exclamation such as &quot;You are not prepared!&quot; might be ruled to be too short and not sufficiently original to be protected if it were used separately, but that would apply just as much to a short statement that was not a quote from a character. But something like one of Gandalf's speeches on &quot;mercy and pity&quot; to Frodo in Chapter 2 (&quot;The Shadow of the past&quot;) in book 1 of The Lord of the Rings would clearly be protected. The longer and the more distinctive such a text is, the more clearly it would be protected. Whether it is put in the mouth of a character or is part of the narration makes no significant difference. Note, in a copyright sense a statement does not &quot;belong to a particular universe&quot;, rather it belongs to a copyright owner, often the author, or in the case of a video game quite likely thy publisher. As this comment by Kevin mentions, and as I should have mentioned, reproducing a short quotation from a work of fiction, particularly if properly attributed, is quite likely to be fair use. See Is this copyright infringement? Is it fair use? What if I don&#39;t make any money off it? for more specific details. See also the threads tagged fair use If a quote is used for a different purpose than the original, in what is called a &quot;transformative&quot; manner in copyright cases, then it is more likely to be held to be fair use. The smaller of a percentage of the source item the quote is, the more likely it is that it will be considered to be a fair use. The less the use of a quote serves as a replacement for the source, or harms the market for the source, the more likely it is to be considered a fair use. See the links above for more detail.
More generally, can anyone just copy an existing website (without copying the code or images)? Yes. Could I make a website that lets people post pictures like Instagram but call it MyPics? Yes. In general, copyright protects particular expressions of ideas, not higher level ideas or concepts.
Copyright is irrelevant, because names are not protected by copyright. Trademark is relevant: a name can be protected by a trademark. &quot;Yoda&quot; is a registered trademark owned by Lucasfilms, a subsidiary of Disney. There is a list of goods and services where the property right is asserted, so for example you could get sued for peddling art books under this name. It just depends on what your business does. For instance, a plumbing business isn't competing with Lucasfilms w.r.t. that class of goods and services.
The purpose of such a statement is to disavow the reading of any impression that the person making the statement is affiliated with the trademark owner, because the gravamen of a trademark infringement suit is that the person using the trademark mislead a consumer into thinking that the person using the trademark was endorsed by or affiliated with the trademark owner.
Yes. There is no requirement that a company name be accurately descriptive. One could call such a company &quot;Horror and Fury Brewing&quot; if one chose to, or &quot;Joe's Eats&quot;. Such a name might well reduce book sales, but there is no law against poor business decisions. As long as the name does not violate any existing trademarks, it should be OK unless there is some specific law in the local jurisdiction that regulates company names, which seems unlikely.
All of your works would be considered to be a derivative work. This is because your work, is based on the work of someone else's. A good test for this to see if something is a derivative work is to see whether the new work can effectively exist without the original. Most copyright laws worldwide are similar, thanks to the Berne Convention for copyrighted works. Since derivative works are normally a right that is exclusive to the copyright holder, you can't make such works without permission (generally through a license or expiry of copyright). So now, let's take a look: The Mona Lisa was made hundreds of years ago. It's definitely in the public domain. You're in no breach of copyright laws here. Yes, of course. Microsoft retains copyright on their icons, and possibly trademarks as well. However, they may have trademark guidance that allows you to use their icons - as long as you follow it. Likely the same as microsoft - you can assume it's similar for most large companies. Code is copyrighted as a literary work - the layout and visual aspect is copyrighted as an artistic work. That artist retains copyright, unless you obtain the work with a license, or the copyright is expired. If you create a derivative work, you infringe on their rights.