Legal Question in Intellectual Property in New York

Are there copyright restrictions on mentioning celebrity or copyrighted character names as a part of a totally unrelated story or example sentence in a teaching textbook (the text will be sold for profit, of course)?

For example, if it were a math question, is it copyright infringement to make word problems like "Harry Potter has five brooms and Ron gives him three more. How many does he have now?". "Madonna gets on a train at 5 pm. The train is traveling 50 miles per hour. How far has she traveled by 7:30?"


Asked on 4/20/10, 4:57 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Kristen Browde Browde Law, P.C.

No - names are not copyrighted. However, there may be trademark implications.

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Answered on 4/25/10, 7:34 pm


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