Are fictional inventions trademarked?
I am wondering if I can include fictional inventions like the power suits in Iron Man. I believe that "power-suits" are used legally by a lot of media; however, what if the power-suit you're describing is very similar to the one in Iron Man? Let's say there are jets on both hands and feet and, to take things even further, what if the color scheme is the same, and what if the mask looks exactly the same (but the rest isn't)? What about lightsabers?
To what degree does an object need to be similar in order to be vulnerable to a trademark lawsuit for a fictional object?
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Read my answer to your question yesterday about copyright. The courts will look at the totality of your work. If they find the work is "substantially similar" then you infringe copyright.
So if your suit is exactly the same, YES, you probably infringe; Iron Man's suit is a product of somebody else's imagination, the way it works and looks is the product of many hours of work and imagination. You cannot steal it!
I am not a lawyer but the way it was explained to me is this: If what you copy already exists in multiple works by more than one author, then it is probably okay to to copy it, because copyright and trademark have to be owned by ONE entity, they cannot be held jointly by multiple owners. So if you find talking rabbits in many books, feel free to write talking rabbits. Bugs Bunny is not the only talking rabbit.
But if what you copy is traceable to one and only one source, then you are likely in violation. So if your power suit looks and works exactly like the fictional Iron Man's power suit, and you cannot find any other fictional power suit in the literature that THEY copied, then leave it alone.
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The concept of power armour isn't in itself subject to a trademark or copyright, but Iron Man's definitely would be, just as a costume consisting of a bodysuit, boots, and a cape would be okay but red boots and cape with a blue bodysuit with a shield-shaped red and yellow logo on the chest, not okay.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/42359. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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