The Hero-U Help Thread

[notbobsmith]

So Hero-U clearly takes place in the same universe as QFG. How did they do that without running afoul of some lawyers?

I think, it runs along a few different lines... The names are fairly "generic" (as in not "iconic" in regards to say - if they had used "Bilbo Baggins" - good chance everyone knows who that is). Erana, and the other names - aren't well known. So they probably skim a copyright law about "you can't copyright names" - but you can "trademark" a name (which, Sierra probably never did - more here: https://writing.stackexchange.com/quest ... by-authors) - and things like the Cheetaur and the Meeps are "standard fantasy." I always think of Weepuls when I think of Meeps. I mean...


You can see why, right?

But what about something that contains elements of an existing story? What would happen if I were to write a fanatsy book that takes place in Gondor and mentions that 100 years ago there was a great war against the Orcs involving a powerful magic ring? I would think whoever controls the rights to Tolkien's works would take issue. And I don't think it would be an issue of trademark otherwise you would have to trademark every fictional character and place.

I remember Weepuls. But I didn't remember what they were called.