April 13, 2014

starry-dreamer asked: This is in relation to the novel I'm working on right now. Is it ok to use the term "droid" when describing robots in a sci-fi story? I find I default to it often (mostly cause I like it better than the terms "robot" or "android" I think), but since Star Wars basically coined that term, I'm afraid they may have it trademarked or something.

You can always check the public records of  USPTO.gov to see if someone has a trademark for a term; Lucasfilm does, but it’s only for toys. There’s at least one other entity that has a live registration for a mark containing DROID for unrelated goods, but even if Lucasfilm was the only entity out there that doesn’t mean you can’t use the term in a descriptive sense. A trademark holder can’t restrict others from using a term to describe something - and it doesn’t sound like you’re using it as a mark, just a word in your narrative. It is, at this point, commonly used in SF and other fictional stories, and afaik, Lucasfilm hasn’t tried to stop it - and even if they tried to now, the doctrines of laches and acquiescence would probably bar them from doing so. 

However, if it’s in the title of the series of books you want to publish and sell, then you may be using it as a mark, and Lucasfilm might try to stop you from doing that. But that’s an issue publishers’ legal departments generally deal with and it shouldn’t impact the story you’re writing. 

8:21am  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZlK2rs1Cvlsrw
  
Filed under: trademarks 
  1. fyeahcopyright posted this