4 Responses

1. Steve

   February 25th, 2010 at 4:02 am

   1

   The rules about how you can use the names of real people, products and companies are complicated and vary from country to country. Broadly speaking, it’s OK to use real names to impart realism to a story, but expect to be sued (or told by your publisher “you can’t say that”) if you portray the real thing or person in a negative light.
   Larger publishers might have someone on their staff who’s responsible for getting permission to use real names. Smaller ones leave it up to the author. One publisher has a six-page form where you have to list every real person, place, company or product in your book, the context in which they’re used, and whether you’ve tried to get permission to use them.
   EDIT: The above-mentioned form also warns the author against using a name that’s a slightly-altered version of a real one – a fast-food chain called McDougals, for instance. The thinking is presumably that if the name is close enough that most readers can figure out who you’re talking about, that’s near enough the same as using the real name. So you might as well use the real name – or not use it at all, if the reason for using the altered name was to avoid being sued.

2. throwdin

   February 25th, 2010 at 10:51 am

   2

   Truthfully, you are dealing with a pretty gray area here. The most likely claims you risk receiving by the real people (or their heirs) that you are portraying in your fiction are: (a) defamation; (b) right of publicity violation; and (3) violation of their right of privacy.
   Most likely you are talking about a celebrity who is alive. As long as they are a public figure, you are fine. However, you would have to worry about defamation if the person is still alive. Basically what that means is do not make up intentionally false defamatory statements.
   You really should speak with a lawyer who works with 1st Amendment law. If you are worried about the cost, there are pro-bono groups out there that work with authors and artists.

3. Meredith Greene

   February 25th, 2010 at 2:33 pm

   3

   People in the public eye can be referenced, as can politicians, etc. Parodies often do as you describe. When naming trademarked items or copyright protected materials, I believe you must have permission. For instance, in on of my books I referenced a character using a Swiffer, but later in editing I had to change it to a generic name; my beta-reader pointed out that it could be construed as infringement.
   On the other hand, if you contact these companies or their representatives and ask them for permission to use the name and offer to mention them in the ‘thanks to’ page, they may just say ‘yes’.
   Lastly, you can change the name of the famous brand slightly, so that folks will likely know what it is you mean, but there is still a risk in doing this;some other companies may have already thought of this as well.Research each ‘fake’ name it make sure it is not a ‘real’ name.
   Cheers,
   MG

4. aia4spoc

   February 25th, 2010 at 2:49 pm

   4

   I think you would have to use the “nominative use test” to see how far you can go with using trademarked names. Wikipedia has a little bit of information about that:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_…
   And also, here is a longer article about fair use of trademarks:http://www.publaw.com/fairusetrade.html