# Can I use a Marilith in a for-profit work?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-marilith-in-a-for-profit-work/658860
**Category:** The Game Room
**Tags:** rpg-dnd-wargames
**Created:** [May 20, 2013, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-marilith-in-a-for-profit-work/658860 "2013-05-20T20:03:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Reyemile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reyemile)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2013, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-marilith-in-a-for-profit-work/658860/1 "2013-05-20T20:03:05Z")
I’m thinking of trying to publish something as an eBook, more out of curiosity than any real desire to earn a profit, but I will hopefully be bringing in a few dollars.
However, part of my projet features one of [these sexy ladies](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilith) (Slightly NSFW; topless pictures on a Wikipedia page)
The Marilith demon originated from Dungeons and Dragons, which leads me to believe she is likely someone’s copyright.
However, she’s [shown up](http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Marilith) in the completely unrelated Final Fantasy series, and in the “related but not the same IP” [Pathfinder game](http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/demon/marilith).
If I publish a story with a Marilith as a central character, how likely am I to get a cease-and-desist order?
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### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2013, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-marilith-in-a-for-profit-work/658860/2 "2013-05-20T20:05:38Z")
from one of your links
> [@](#):
>
> Mariliths in Dungeons & Dragons are based on Hindu mythology, where gods and demons frequently have multiple heads and arms.
Maybe “Marilith” is a trademark of D&D. Maybe not.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2013, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-marilith-in-a-for-profit-work/658860/3 "2013-05-20T20:33:24Z")
Even if the name “Marilith” is trademarked, you could still use a demoness of the same description, but by a different name.
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### Author:  [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2013, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-marilith-in-a-for-profit-work/658860/4 "2013-05-20T22:51:05Z")
Agree with **Chronos** , and would advise changing the name.
And let us know! I adore the “six-arms” motif (Marvel’s “Spiral” is my favorite comics character!) I’ll definitely be among your first customers!
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### Author:  [@Reyemile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reyemile)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2013, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-marilith-in-a-for-profit-work/658860/5 "2013-05-21T01:57:34Z")
> [@Trinopus](#):
>
> Agree with **Chronos** , and would advise changing the name.
>
> And let us know! I adore the “six-arms” motif (Marvel’s “Spiral” is my favorite comics character!) I’ll definitely be among your first customers!
Even if it’s porn?
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### Author:  [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2013, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-marilith-in-a-for-profit-work/658860/6 "2013-05-24T22:30:52Z")
I wasn’t aware than any creatures actually originated with D&D. I thought they were mostly cribbed from other sources. Some more blatantly than others. Didn’t they have to issue a new, edited printing of some material when the Lovecraft and Tolkien estates threatened action?
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### Author:  [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2013, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-marilith-in-a-for-profit-work/658860/7 "2013-05-24T22:35:18Z")
> [@TBG](#):
>
> I wasn’t aware than any creatures actually originated with D&D. I thought they were mostly cribbed from other sources. Some more blatantly than others. Didn’t they have to issue a new, edited printing of some material when the Lovecraft and Tolkien estates threatened action?
_Deities and Demigods_ as I recall.
And some critters in fact _were_ created for the game. [Rust Monsters](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust_monster) for example.
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### Author:  [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2013, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-marilith-in-a-for-profit-work/658860/8 "2013-05-24T23:16:43Z")
> [@Reyemile](#):
>
> Even if it’s porn?
Well…yeah… (Rule34 has several…)
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### Author:  [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2013, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-marilith-in-a-for-profit-work/658860/9 "2013-05-25T05:25:12Z")
Hindu mythology has both snake-tailed humanoids and multi-armed humanoids, so I agree with the others that say that the Marilith concept is not defendable, even if the Marilith name is.
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### Author:  [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2013, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-marilith-in-a-for-profit-work/658860/10 "2013-05-25T10:43:04Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#):
>
> _Deities and Demigods_ as I recall.
>
> And some critters in fact _were_ created for the game. [Rust Monsters](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust_monster) for example.
They’re also somewhat famously protective of Illithids/Mind Flayers and Beholders.
Which is why, despite Beholders or Beholder-like enemies appearing in countless video games and JRPGs, they’re always called “evil eyes”, “watchers” or something like that.
[QUOTE=Grumman]
Hindu mythology has both snake-tailed humanoids and multi-armed humanoids
[/QUOTE]
And [snake-tailed multi-armed humanoids](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Patanjali.jpg).
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### Author:  [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2013, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-marilith-in-a-for-profit-work/658860/11 "2013-05-25T11:32:19Z")
There’s also a [four armed snake-woman](http://www.scifinow.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sinbad05-Snake-Woman.jpg) in [The 7th Voyage of Sinbad](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_7th_Voyage_of_Sinbad), which is awful close to a six armed one conceptually.
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### Author:  [@DRAGONDEATHLORD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DRAGONDEATHLORD)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2023, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-marilith-in-a-for-profit-work/658860/12 "2023-01-16T22:51:49Z")
Marilith Word itself was actually never copyrighted. Reason they forgot…
Oh they scream like banshees but originally it was listed as a type 5 demon and they never copyrighted it. So they’ll send you a letter of cease and desist but you can roll it up throw it in the garbage and laugh.
Yeah they were plane lazy. 😂
Also costs money to copyright everything and the copyright was dubious at best being it was based on something that does appear in mythology but they could have copyrighted the name but again they where cheap and lazy.
Also the Kankandara snake woman from Japanese urban ghost story. And it’s been used in a lot of anime.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2023, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-marilith-in-a-for-profit-work/658860/13 "2023-01-16T23:04:09Z")
Copyright costs nothing, it isn’t something you do separately, and it’s completely irrelevant here.
What’s relevant here is trademark, a completely different sort of intellectual property law. And one of the requirements to get a trademark recognized is that you have to actually be using it as a trademark: That is to say, it’s something that identifies your products as being your products.
D&D, in its various incarnations, has in fact consistently used beholders, umber hulks, rust monsters, owlbears, displacer beasts, and illithids, plus a few others, as an identifier of their product. So they registered trademarks on those, and those trademarks are pretty solid. But they’ve never used mariliths in that way, possibly because they’re not as distinctive, and possibly because there’s a practical limit on how many different images you can use to identify the same products.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2023, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-marilith-in-a-for-profit-work/658860/14 "2023-01-16T23:11:38Z")
Welcome to the SDMB! Just so you are aware, this thread is ten years old, and the person who started it, and asked the question, hasn’t been active here in six years, so they may never see your response.