# Pseudonym Legal Question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudonym-legal-question/280541>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 18, 2004, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudonym-legal-question/280541 "2004-12-18T17:26:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudonym-legal-question/280541/21 "2004-12-20T04:07:01Z")

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There probably isn’t a lot of law on this possibility. Assuming the name was not trademarked, the original author would – possibly – have some grounds on the name being a derivative work, but that’s very tenuous. And if the name were actually your name, there’s no issue (there was a minor league baseball player named Ronald McDonald; no one sued him).

But since it’s uncharted territory, your publisher would probably try to dissuade you from doing it, or at least insist that, if the copyright holder sued, you were on the hook for all costs.

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