Went to go see Batman Begins. My wife and I are sitting there as the credits roll (yes, we’re the one’s who don’t get up), when my eyes happen upon:
Catering services provided by: Rancho Relaxo
I got a real kick out of it. (For you non-Simpsons nerds, this is the spa that Marge goes to decompress after having a nervous breakdown)
Google shows a catering outfit in Toronto with that name. Whether the episode or business came first, I don’t know.
But I began wondering, “What are the rules about using fictional names for your real business?”
Do you have to ask permission? Maybe you don’t even need to ask!
Can I go ahead and open a gun shop called Bloodbath & Beyond?
Or a feed store named Sneed’s Feed & Seed formerly Chucks? (If you don’t get it please don’t ask)
Or start chain of Big Kahuna Burgers?
I’m not sure of the answer. I’ve seen some names trademarked, but those seem to be special situations, such as certain companies marketing games or comic books.
In general, unless it’s a high-profile name (“Tatooine Burgers”) I can’t imagine it would be worth the legal fees.
I have seen a number of “Needful Things” junk shops appear after Stephen King’s book appeared.
There’s a chain of comic shops in the UK called Forbidden Planet, obviously they took their name from the movie(1956). Don’t know if there was any copyright issues, if they had to pay to use the name or anything.
Unless the name is already tradmarked (e.g., if you named your magic shop “Harry Potter’s Emporium”), there usually isn’t a problem about using a name from literature for your business name.
I remember how disappointed I was to find there was still an Ace Novelty Company (one of the outfits Daffy Duck used to pretend to work for to get into people’s houses and cause trouble — I’d been considering the name for a small jazz/hokum combo). And no, they’re not in Walla Walla, Washington, but they are in Woodenville, Washington.
The Warner Bros. affiliation continued as of 2000, when they were the makers of Animaniacs plush toys.
In the U.S., there are Federal registered trademarks, and there are statewide name registrations. If you don’t register your trademark, it’s hard to protect it unless you can demonstrate that someone else’s use actually hurts you. If I write a story that mentions a bar called “Wombat’s Billabong,” I’m highly unlikely to actually go out and register that trademark. If it’s just a casual mention in my story (as opposed to a prime element like Spider Robinson’s “Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon” or Arthur C. Clarke’s “White Hart”), I don’t think I’d stand a chance of preventing you from using the name for a real bar.
IANAL, but I’ve dealt with trademarks quite a bit.
Wasn’t it “US Robots and Mechanical Men”? I don’t have any of the books handy to look it up, but that’s how I remember it.
slightly off-topic, but Does anyone know if Bill Gates grabbed the name Microsoft from the term used in Gibson’s Neuromancer? I always figured that was the case, but noone I’ve spoken to could say yes for sure.
Neuromancer shows a publication date of 1984. This timeline indicates Bill Gates had used the name Microsoft as early as 1975 and it was definitely in use by 1981 when the IBM PC shipped. I’m pretty sure I can recall fighting Microsoft support long before 1984.
A parody name of an existing trademark could and probably would get you a nasty letter from a trademark lawyer. It’s one thing to use the name in a satire, but to give it to another store is likely infringement. For instance, every once in a while, Western Union has to suppress someone calling themselves Eastern Onion.
In another case of this actually happening, there’s a Wonka Candy Company (most famous for Nerds, though they do actually have a product called an Everlasting Gobstopper), named after the company in the Roald Dahl books. This is rather more central to the story in question, I would think, than a quick one-off mention on The Simpsons (or even a repeated mention, like Duff).
Nope right back. I know Loopus already said it, but I pulled out my old Asimov books and it’s definitely U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men. Good to know my memory actually works sometimes.
I’m rather interested in this question now, but I don’t see any consensus. Most posters indicate it’s probably ok, but if a RL Duff brewery lost out to the Simpsons, where does that leave my new ventures Umbrella Corp. and Shinohara Heavy Industries?
