"Taboo trademarks", copyright, etc

[PkK]

In the taboo trademarks thread there seems to be a consensus that we can't use trademarks or copyrighted works in homebrews.

 

I don't know much about US law, so maybe you could help clarify some points.

 

- When there's a film by the name of X is it allowed to make a game called X? AFAIK a trademark applies to a certain class of products or sevices. So the name of a video game shouldn'T infringe upon a trademark used or registered for films (unless said trademark is used or registered for video games, too).*

- I think copyrights could prevent game authors from making games that have a storyline similar to one from a film.*

- How about fair use rights? Do they allow the creation of a game parodising a film?

 

* There was the case of the widow of the author of "Dracula" suing a film maker for copyright infringement. She succeeded and courts ordered all copies of the film to be destroyed. The movie, called "Nosferatu" (the first vampire movie) had a storyline very similar to the parts of the book's storyline (a transsylvanian count that sucks blood coming to a western European town by ship, with the ships crew dying one by one).

 

Philipp