Legal Question in Intellectual Property in India

copyright question

If I write and publish a Harry Potter book with many characters and place names from the original books by Ms. Rowlings, will it violate copyright law ?


Asked on 2/27/04, 6:19 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Kasim Master Master&Master

Re: copyright question

There are distinct and different copyright laws in each country. If you are located in India, then note that there is a difference if you "write and publish a Harry Potter book" and if you "write and publish a Harry Potter [like] book". The copyright law prevents any person infringing the right of an author by 'copying' that author's work. Thus you cannot call your charactor Harry Potter and use other charactors from those books with their original author invented names; but you can mimic the charactor in "your original work" and could call the charactor "Harriman Potterson".

The answer to your question therefore is that you cannot write a Harry Potter book using the charactors from that book with their author invented names. If you do you may not find a genuine publisher to publish your work!

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Answered on 2/27/04, 6:45 am


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