Copyright Infringement? (New problem. See my latest post)

[Cybeat]

Hello, people. In my current project I named a character Seiji Date, but then just a little while ago I found out there's already a character of the same name. Is it considered copyright infringement if I continued to use the name, or will I have to go back in my script and change it?

[lordcloudx]

Depends on which character it is, the applicable laws in your area, the similarities between the characters and if the owner of the original character feels like raising suit for a little ren'py game.

Takumi Fujiwara is the l337 driver of Akina's legendary AE86 Trueno in the popular Initial D series. Takumi Fujiwara is also a wannabe basketball player in another anime called Dear Boys.

[Samu-kun]

No. You can use the same name.

edit:
Cloud beat me to the punch.

[sake-bento]

Don't worry about it. There's no copyright for someone's name. It's not exactly the best idea to name your main character "Cloud Strife" or anything, but it won't be copyright infringement. Keep it.

[Cybeat]

*whew* Thanks guys.

[PyTom]

That being said, it has to be a different character. If I make a visual novel about a guy named James Tiberius Kirk, who captains a starship when he's not bedding green-skinned women, that's likely to be copyright infringement. If my James Tiberius Kirk works at the local Quick-Stop, then it's probably not.

[Koveras]

Also, you can use any characters from public domain works without worrying. If you write a story about a great detective named Sherlock Holmes who faces off against an underseas monster named Cthulhu (say, in a cyberpunk setting), that won't be a copyright infringement, either. %)

[LVUER]

As far as I know, it's alright to use same name as other existing fiction/real character (Kennedy, Nobunaga, etc... or even the infamous Fuhrer). To play it safe, you could always add "Same name (person/character) or place, real or fiction, exists or not, live or dead, is purely a coincidence" ^_^

[Cybeat]

Alright, now I have a new problem. Turns out that there's a character named Ai with almost the same appearance as the one in my current project, Mujinchitai. They're both named Ai, have long blue hair, and both have long ears. Only difference is eye color. Now is this copyright infringement of the character?

The "Ai" that already exists is from a VN called "Tick! Tack!". Here's a picture.
http://www.zerochan.net/Tick%21+Tack%21/58891

And here's my current project
http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... =16&t=3360

[pinkmouse]

Alright, now I have a new problem. Turns out that there's a character named Ai with almost the same appearance as the one in my current project, Mujinchitai. They're both named Ai, have long blue hair, and both have long ears. Only difference is eye color. Now is this copyright infringement of the character?

The "Ai" that already exists is from a VN called "Tick! Tack!". Here's a picture.
http://www.zerochan.net/Tick%21+Tack%21/58891

And here's my current project
http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... =16&t=3360

As has been pointed out in other similar threads, the likelihood of actual legal action is pretty low.

Pragmatically, the question to ask yourself is "would someone who saw both of those stories be likely to reasonably believe that one is derived from the other?" If the answer is yes, expect flamage, whether it's deserved or not.

Another thing to think about is: when your project is released, is having names that are very similar to another project (even, perhaps especially, if the story is waaay different) going to be a pain in the butt for *your* fans? It might be worth you changing names in your project just to save them having to wade through pages of false hits about that other commercial property that they're not interested in.

[this_barb]

A "character" is copyright.

A character name is not.

Regardless, a party can use the DMCA if they want and it is up to you whether you want to fight it or not.

[Jake]

Not a lawyer, blah blah.

A "character" is copyright.

A character name is not.

As I understand it, it's more that a Character Design may be copyrighted... and thus, anything which is obviously using that character design is a derivative work of the design. I would suggest - at the risk of sounding derogatory - that both the Tick! Tack! character and the Mujinchitai character are generic enough that it's not reasonable to presume that one is a derivative of the other... blue hair, elf ears and the name 'Ai' are all pretty common things in manga-styled productions.

And bear in mind that while a character name cannot usually be copyrighted, it's quite possibly a trademark. You can't call your cartoon mouse "Mickey Mouse" whatever he looks like, because Disney will sue the living daylights out of you. "Judge Dredd" is a trademark of 2000AD, "Dr. Octopus" is a trademark of Marvel Disney, "Maugan Ra" is a trademark of Games Workshop... calling your character one of those and operating in the same market as the existing trademark holder is asking for trouble. For Disney, this means any market at all - for someone like GW, you're probably safe if you stay out of miniatures wargaming, videogames and comics. (Of course, there are so many 'Ai's in manga and related media that no one company is likely to have a defendable trademark on the name.)

[Aleema]

Blue hair, elf ears, named "Ai"? Copyright infringement? No. Just bad luck on your part.
All of those traits are just results of the random girl generator of whatever-the-artist-thought-looked-good. The only real risk is people thinking you're unoriginal.

"Ai" is such a ridiculously common name, don't think twice about it being copyrighted. The same goes for BLUE HAIR and ELF EARS. All of it is completely up for grabs.

In regards to having names copyrighted -- yes, it is possible to copyright names. Are the names in a random Japanese VN copyrighted? Nope.

[Jake]

yes, it is possible to copyright names. Are the names in a random Japanese VN copyrighted? Nope.

It doesn't make sense for these two statements to be true at the same time. For Berne-signatory countries which have implemented the treaty's provisions - which I'm pretty sure includes the US, all of Western Europe and Japan - copyright automatically covers any creative work from the point of creation onwards, without the creator having to do anything to 'get' their copyright.

So if names are always copyrightable, then all the names, without exception, in random Japanese VNs are copyrighted.
If names in random Japanese VNs are not all copyrighted, then it follows that names are not generally copyrightable.

Off the top of my head, I would suggest that it's probably the case that names are simply too short to qualify for copyright protection; they're not significant creative works in their own right.

Not to mention that it would be practically unfeasible to determine the original start of copyright; if I call my character Adam Smith, then I'm obviously safe, because at the very least there was the famous economist, whose name has long since passed into the public domain and thus is free to use for anyone, nobody could claim it as their own. I could find similar cases for John Smith and Robert Smith, but Wikipedia's only Theodore Smith is young enough that if he was the first person to ever bear the name, it's theoretically possible that his parents (who would hold the copyright, I guess) would have lived long enough for the name to still be in copyright. Probably there were many Theodore Smiths in antiquity which history merely didn't choose to record, so I can guess that probably the name is in the public domain... but if the estate of Theodore Smith's parents wanted to sue me over it, how would the case proceed?
Plainly, this is all ridiculously silly... yes, it's true that there's an element of creativity in choosing a name (especially in fiction, where names are sometimes meaningful of character), but there's also an element of creativity in rolling a pair of dice or dropping runes, and nobody's going to be allowed to copyright the results of a rune casting. I'm pretty sure you'll find the answer is that names are not copyrightable at all, and any name which is unique enough to obviously be sourced from one particular place and not just coincidental will be adequately protected by trademark law.

[PyTom]

It shouldn't be trademark infringement, either. Trademark law only controls how a name is used in business. If a name of a character is only used internally to your game (as opposed to in the name of the game, or in advertising, or something like that) then it really shouldn't matter.

The important thing here is that you keep documentation of the character's creation (emails, PMs, and the like). If at any time, you said, "like that girl in Tick-Tack", you're in trouble. But if you came up with it from first principles ("she's a demon, so she should have dark hair and pointy ears"), you're fine.