im pretty sure a name cant be copyrighted, and the legal process for trademarks is way more reasonable than copyright, they test if people are confused about the origin of the product. i think they wouldnt have a case

[–] purpleworm@hexbear.net 13 points 5 days ago (2 children)

im pretty sure a name cant be copyrighted

Really? I feel like that comes up all the time for like comic book characters and such.

[–] techpeakedin1991@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I think the distinction is between the name of the work itself (like there are actual comic books called Batman or whatever), versus the name of a character in the book. I ain't a lawyer though so I'm not sure

[–] purpleworm@hexbear.net 1 points 4 days ago

I guess that's probably a major factor in why so many comic book series are mainly or just the name of the protagonist.

[–] ClimateStalin@hexbear.net 3 points 5 days ago

Yeah there’s a reason only DC has a superhero with the obvious name “Super-Man”

[–] Justice@lemmygrad.ml 9 points 5 days ago (1 children)

If anyone has the infinite money pool to explore such things it would be the Tolkien estate and the studios who either own or licensed the IP for The Hobbit, LotR, etc.

I'd say if he had stopped at Palantir maybe be could have a good counter argument. He's very clearly just ripping every single "evil" object, creature, whatever else he can from the books though.

I don't think there's confusion for most people over the original source of the names. He's definitely using the names to get more attention though. I feel at the very least he should be paying them some sort of licensing fee. I'm surprised they haven't already tried something. Nintendo would certainly not let someone name their evil company Bowser's Warship (I dunno, just trying to think of something close to similar). They'd at least send a C&D and review their options if the company ignored them. Maybe I'm crazy.

[–] mudpuppy@hexbear.net 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

bowser is just a name people have though, you could totally call it that

[–] Justice@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I could also make a game company named after my distant cousin "Mario" and name it "Hyper Mario Land"

How would Nintendo respond in that scenario?

But either way my hypotheticals are irrelevant and not anywhere near the reality of Theil just straightforwardly lifting names from Tolkien and doing so repeatedly. They're not like common names either. Did the word Palantir exist before he published LotR? Obviously Tolkien "borrowed" (ripped off in some cases) from like Finnish mythology and others. I wouldn't expect words like "Wizard" or "Elf" to be protected in anyway. "Hobbit" though? Well, I dunno. "Palantir"? "Nazgûl" (why the fuck does Apple auto correct that spelling)?

Look, I'm feeling gross typing all this pro-corpo sounding stuff. I just want Theil to lose lots of money. However that can happen is fine with me. It's also personally annoying to me that he keeps using LotR stuff. It's cringe as fuck, and I'm pretty sure he couldn't even explain why he thinks the names fit. Although Palantir sigh does sort of fit. In a round about way anyway.

[–] mudpuppy@hexbear.net 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

game company called hyper mario land would be same industry, more similar name to an existing trademark than just the name mario, both sides definitely trademarked rather than copyrighted, they would probably have a case. everything im reading says fictional names cant be copyrighted but they can be trademarked, it would only be an issue if they trademarked the fictional character's name and then they met the conditions for a legal test including consumers not understanding that the bank was not affiliated with lotr. istg trademark law is actually chill

[–] Justice@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 4 days ago

You're forcing me to arrive at the conclusion the other commenter made. Involving a hit of the man sort.