Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California

While there are few well-known cartoon coyotes other than Wile E. Coyote, this doesn't mean that Warner Bros. can claim intellectual property rights (copyright and trademark) over all depictions of the species "Canis latrans,"* and they certainly don't have exclusive rights in the word "Coyote."

Consider the realm of cartoon mice. You have Mickey, Minnie, Mighty, Chuck E. Cheese, Danger, Fievel, Mrs. Brisby, Jerry, Itchy and Speedy Gonzales, among others. The primary reason Mickey and Chuck E. and their lawyers aren't perpetually in rodent court are that they are drawn differently: Chuck E. is distinguished from Mickey by his pink ears and his cap which bears the letter "C."

Cartoon coyotes other than Wile E. include Calamity Coyote; and Wilber (the mascot for the open-source graphics app, GIMP). Wile E. has floppy ears, while Wilber has U-shaped ears and no arms or legs.

There are also human coyotes who will smuggle you across the border for a price.

Hope this helps.

* Wile E. Coyote has also been scientifically described as "Carnivorous Slobbius" and "Famishus Famishus," among others.

One cannot copyright or trademark a single word of the English language alone, such as "coyote." Can you imagine the result if this were possible? Before long, you couldn't use any of our commonplace nouns because they'd all be protected as someone else's property. The ability to claim trademark or copyright in a particular cartoon character is based upon a combination of factors that make it a distinguishable work of creative art or a symbol of the owner's business.