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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/34663
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/34663
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I am not a lawyer, but do business with copyright law, and this is my understanding.

First, it IS possible to copyright characters in other works. Here is an excerpt from [Protection of Fictional Characters:](http://corporate.findlaw.com/intellectual-property/protection-of-fictional-characters.html)

> Although the decisions in cases involving the protection of fictional characters have not been consistent, the prevailing view has been that fictional characters are copyright protected. However, the general trend with respect to copyright protection must be categorized as one of restrictive protection rather than an all-encompassing scope of protection. Generally in those cases where the fictional character was found to be protected, the character that was copied was "distinctively delineated" (or fully developed) in the original work and that the character's delineation was misappropriated in the copier's work.

Also, even if you do not violate copyright, you may violate trademark law; a trademark can be a "phrase" of just a few words, and no filing is required in the USA: A trademark is established when it is used in trade, so if they sold a book a trade occurred. So, if you stole not just the "bioshock infinite society" **idea** but the **name** as well, you may be deemed to have violated a trademark of the original author, since this combination of words is likely unique and used by the original author to make money. This is called, under trademark law,

**Misappropriation:** defined by one court as the "taking and use of another's property for the sole purpose of capitalizing unfairly on the good will and reputation of the property owner." (See [here](http://corporate.findlaw.com/intellectual-property/protection-of-literary-titles.html)). The discussion of the link is "literary titles", but I believe it has been contested for other unique elements of a work, including character names ("Marty McFly", "James Bond", "Harry Potter").

If what you are interested in is sales, then regardless of whether your use is **_legal_** or not, both editors and readers may reject your work for being too obviously a ripoff of another author's ideas, names, and characters.

Many characters look for the philosopher's stone, but how many are "missing a body part?" If you cannot name **another** character "missing a body part and looking for the philosopher stone" then you may be in copyright violation, especially if your protagonist is similar in other ways to your "inspiration".

So even if you aren't sued, well-read editors or readers or critics may reject your work as unoriginal, a rip-off, or for a publisher, not worth risking a lawsuit.

You can steal ideas, and portrayals that exist in multiple works: Dragons, elves, trolls, witches, wizards and magicians abound. Time travel, parallel worlds, Artificial Intelligence and robots too. Stealing too specifically **_might_** get you in legal trouble, or just rejected.

Original score: 2