I was re-reading one of the James Bond novels the other day (Colonel Sun, in case anyone was wondering) and it got me thinking that James Bond has been a busy chap and must surely have some relatives somewhere- besides illegitimate children, of course. (I know it’s mentioned in the earlier novels he’s an orphan, but bear with me here)
Which got me wondering: Could an author write a story about a character called, say, Geoffrey Bond, who is a Journalist with the BBC and happens to be James Bond’s brother?
The style of the story obviously couldn’t come out and say “My brother is James Bond who works for MI5”, but could one use oblique references- “My brother James works for the Government, but it’s all very hush-hush. Heard he stopped some big Gold heist a few years back, you know” for example? The reader shouldn’t have too much trouble figuring that the brother called James of a character with the last name Bond, who works for the Government in some secret capacity and foiled a big Gold Heist (see Goldfinger) is, of course that James Bond.
And for the record, No, I’m not planning on writing a novel about James Bond’s brother- it just seemed like an interesting discussion topic.
So, could an author get away with writing a novel about the relative of a copyrighted character, as long as that copyrighted character didn’t actually appear in the derivative work?
A cursory mention isn’t going to get you in trouble. But if you went so far as to write a spy novel starring Geoffrey Bond, and market him as James’s younger brother, then you might be in some trouble.
Though I seem to recall a recent Son of James Bond cartoon series. Presumably they got permission, somehow.
I wonder if it has been done. I can’t think of any examples off the top of my head. It might be something that has happened in the comic book world, but I don’t know much about comics.
Wasn’t the title character of, Charles in Charge, subtly (or not so subtly) written as the same character Chachi (whose real name was Charles) from Happy Days? I wonder if they paid any royalties because as far as I remember they never came out and said it was the same character, but they hinted at it and left the question open.
The Sherlock Holmes stories are long out of copyright. This is why there have been hundreds of novels which are continuations of the Sherlock Holmes stories, some of which have involved relatives of Holmes. This is irrelevant to the question in the OP.
Not quite the same thing, but Marvel’s got a fairly good number of characters who were created as part of properties they no longer have the rights to - they licenced the property, added a few original characters, and, due to various circumstances, were able to keep the original characters when they lost or dropped the licence.
Aaron Stack/X-51/Machine Man was created for Marvel’s 2001: A Space Odyssey series.
Bug, currently co-starring in Guardians of the Galaxy, was created for their Micronauts series. (They own a few other Micronauts characters, too, but Bug’s the big one, as he was based on a toy, but was different enough that they could claim he was an original character.)
They own several character created for their Transformers series, as well, notably Circuit Breaker. Haven’t done damn all with her since dropping the Transformers, though.
Death’s Head was created for their Doctor Who series. Then he had his own book for several years, appeared occasionally for some time after that, and new versions have appeared sporadically for the last decade and a half or so.
Death’s Head and Circuit Breaker were originally introduced in books other than the licenced books, so they they wouldn’t end up giving the rights to the BBC and Hasbro - what the deal with Aaron and Bug is, I don’t know.
The Green Hornet was originally the grandnephew of the Lone Ranger. The two characters were created by the same writer, but ended up being owned by different companies. As I understand it, Green Hornet writers will occasionally make oblique references to the ranger, but never state the connection explicitly.
Characters are not copyrighted. Books are copyrighted, but not characters.
Mostly. J. D. Salinger is currently suing a “sequel” to Catcher in the Rye on the grounds that “The Sequel infringes Salinger’s copyright rights in both his novel and the character Holden Caulfield, who is the narrator and essence of that novel.” It’s unclear how that will work out.
Most uses of other peoples’ characters get by under the parody fair use exemption, like The Wind Done Gone parody of Gone with the Wind.
I can’t think of any legal objection via copyright to writing about a character not in the original, whether by implication or by direct mention. There might be a trademark challenge if certain aspects of the name or traits have been trademarked. You can easily check the Trademark database to see what is restricted.
Exapno is correct. Assuming the character did not appear in the original book, it’s a gray area. Salinger got a dumb copyright ruling in the past (making it illegal to publish sections of his unpublished correspondence without permission, even for a biography) and he may be able to win this one. But I don’t think it’s really been tested.
I’m trying to think of examples that fit the OP, but most are dealing with public domain works.
There is a MST3K episode featuring the movie Operation Double 007, starring Sean Connery’s brother Neil as a world-class surgeon who is also James Bond’s brother (though no one actually says “James Bond”) and a secret agent in his own right. A few actors from the 007 franchise appear as well.
But James Bond Jr. is James Bond’s nephew, not son. In the theme song, it says “he’s learned the game from his Uncle James”. (No, I never watched it… errr… moving along…)
The title character of the Lupin III anime/manga franchise is supposedly the grandson of Arsène Lupin, a gentleman thief created by the French author Maurice LeBlanc.
The original Lupin stories are now in the public domain, but I believe when the Japanese character first appeared they were still under copyright, forcing the character to be renamed for international distribution.
You can’t copyright a character. The stories they appear in can be copyrighted, but the characters themselves cannot be. Often they are protected by trademarks, however.
Actually, it was for the Marvel UK version of Transformers. There was a crossover with Who, which was mainly used to explain how he went from being giant robot sized to human sized for his future appearances in more mainstream Marvel titles.
ETA
Sorry, missed that until after I posted, didn’t think anyone had mentioned that yet, didn’t mean to step on your toes.