Thread: I wasn't sure where to post this question

Hello all, I have a question and wasn't sure which forum to post it in, so I decided to start here. I am currently writing a short story and have a list of names, some I made up some I didn't. I was wondering if there were any kind of restrictions on names, one name I found is also the name of a band I came across on youtube. I think it would make an amazing city name, but don't know if that's even legal or if there are copyrights on this sort of thing. I tried to look up copyright information but couldn't find much. Thanks in advance for any advice anyone has.

Jessica

I'm pretty sure you can't copyright a singular name. Most bands get their names from elsewhere also. Tesla is a good example. They used the unit of measure for magnetic flux density, which in turn gets its name from Nikola Tesla.

I don't have a definitive answer, however I do know that titles are not subject to copyright. I also know that Equity insists on original names for its members, that they have to make such a rule suggests to me that the law is not definite. However if the name is a registered trade mark like "Hoover" or "Microsoft" think again.

Originally Posted by Olly Buckle

However if the name is a registered trade mark like "Hoover" or "Microsoft" think again.

I'm not so sure about Hoover, but I'm pretty sure Microsoft is taken. Afterall, Microsoft, the name, didn't exist until Gates came up with it, but Hoover has been a around a long time.

I'm not a lawyer, but I suspect the trademark laws are only to prevent multiple companies from using the same company name. Hoover is a common surname. We even had a president named Hoover. People named Hoover do not have to change their names just because a business registered that name as a trademark. So long as you do not defame the Hoover company, you should be fine. Now if your story is about vacuum cleaners and your characters have names like Hoover, Kenmore, Kirby, etc, then you might have legal problems...

It would only matter if it was a trade mark. Like if you called a character Nike, or Coca cola then it may cause legal issues. But it wouldn't be a copyright issue. Copyright only covers representations of ideas, and not names of things.