Copyright Question

[Tawodi Osdi]

I have questions for those that are professionally creative.  I have written three short stories for a super heroic world of my own creation, and I have another started and several more floating around in my hand, and as my writing skills improve and add more stories, characters, and plots to my world the more I think of going pro and publishing it.  The question I have is how does one check to make sure that character names and such aren't already held under copyright or trademark?  Also, if a character was originally created to respectfully emulate a previously created character, how close can you get to the original concept without being guilty of plagiarism?

[Mr. Hamrick]

http://www.copyright.gov/ would be my guess on where to start.

[Tawodi Osdi]

Thanks!

[swede4444]

As for how close you can get, that sounds like grey, sticky area. You'd probably almost have to be a copyright lawyer to answer that, and, honestly, it might just come down to who you anger and how many lawyers they have working for them.

Keeping your distance is always the safe road.

For my MFA thesis, I wrote a Batman parody play, and was fortunate enough to get it produced. I was able to join the Dramatist Guild on the strength of that production, so I contacted their legal staff, who told me, in a nutshell, I had an unmarketable, illegal play.

[DrMike2000]

Google's always a good place to start for character names. Its often entertaining as well as informative, although far from definitive.

I never knew that Omegazon was a vitamin supplment, Miss Amazing was a transvestite beauty pageant in Asia, or that the Life Star was a clinic for pornography addicts until I looked them up.

As for respectfully emulating, I'd say the precedences are set by The Four in Planetary, the Squadron Supreme and Imperial Guard in Marvel Comics and many other analogues. If the spirit of the character is recognisable, but obviously a different character from the original in appearance and name, you should be fine.

[Tawodi Osdi]

Based on what you guys have said, I should be pretty safe.  In many ways, it is part spoof playing up traditional comic book cliches and anti-cliches and spoofs tend to be protected in most court cases, and I do not limit myself to just comic books for backgrounds.  My three main characters should be safely original. 

I have Captain Spectacular who is a basic Superman-type in that high is strong, resilient, and fast with the flight and excellent senses. His secret ID is a blue collar machine shop type, and in story, he tends to a cross between an everyman and a weirdness magnet.  Crimson Aura is an alien that happens look like a Japanese woman.  She is a telepath with Green Lantern like powers.  She comes from a Spartan-type society and was marooned on Earth when her battle armada was beaten by super heroes.  She currently works part-time at a clerk for a t-shirt shop as she tries to learn Earth customs.  Mister Invisible is an African-American who can turn invisible and while invisible is immune to mind affecting powers.  His a linguist who is an expert in Asian languages and dialects.  Ironically, he is obsessed with his appearance.  I have also decided to add Tawodi Osdi to the roster since I have recently wrote a story for him in the Fan Fiction section.

I would also like add characters I've made up while playing Let's Pretend as a child and characters I've made up for RPG's in my teens and twenties, and it's those ones that may prove problematic since many of them are only just my versions of pre-published characters, like Emerald Ring for Green Lantern, Black Bow for Green Arrow, Silver Sorceress for Scarlet Witch and so on.