Re: Trademarks and Such (Score: 1)
posted Tuesday, January 05, 2010 - 06:06 AM (
#50731)
@ Dave, as a patent and trademark attorney, I can tell you that that is exciting to more than just you.
@Patjade, no, trademark registrations are limited to their specific areas of use in commerce, so there should not be any conflict between this webcomic (and the Sheldon Store items) and a character name from a tv show. The character name itself is a "fair use" anyway, and any rights to the characters themselves is covered by the copyright laws, which require "substantial similarity" (among other factors) to establish an infringement. From what I observe, there are only basic, common similarities between Sheldon of the webcomic and Sheldon from Big Bang Theory, and that the major individual characteristics are significantly different. So no worries for the Chuck Lorre fans out there.