Legal question: Can I set part of my novel at Burning Man, and call it that?

About half of the novel I just finished in my urban fantasy series is set at Burning Man. I did some research to try to portray it accurately in the context of the story, but I do some pretty horrible things to it (by the end there's a huge Bad Thing that ends up killing and injuring a bunch of people).

My question is: Can I still call it Burning Man? I know the term is trademarked, but everything I've been able to track down online has been more focused on not naming other events BM, or implying the BM is associated with your event/business/activity/etc. I didn't see anything about using it in a fictional piece.

Anyone know? In the draft I'm calling it "Blazing Man" and the attendees "Blazers" (instead of "Burners") but the basic design of the venue (which I never refer to by name) is the same, as is the general fictionalized description of the activities at the event. Nobody who knows anything at all about BM is going to miss that this is supposed to be the same thing.

Thanks for any advice!

JulianneQJohnson said:

Using the name of an actual organization, product, or person by an author in a fiction work is considered fair use. The only way you might get into trouble is if you wrote about the organization Burning Man causing harm to people, rather than an outside force causing trouble at Burning Man. For example, if you write about a zombie at McDonalds killing someone, no trouble. If you write about a Big Mac at McDonalds killing someone, you are looking for a law suit.

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It's definitely the former: the bad guys set up something that causes trouble at Burning Man, and it ends up killing and injuring a bunch of people before the heroes can stop it. There's nothing in the story that puts the BM organizers in a bad light (in fact, they're barely mentioned at all).

Keyan said:

Cory Doctorow's novel Homeland has a Burning Man sequence. I think he actually mentions the name, but I could check.

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Thanks--I found it online! And he does mention it by name. Pretty good read, too!

http://www.tor.com/stories/2012/07/homeland-excerpt

calieber said:

I doubt the people involved will object to calling it what it is if you don't cast the event itself in a negative light. Burning Man is pretty much the opposite of secret. (How do you know if someone's a Burner? Don't worry, they'll tell you.) For that matter, if you don't cast it in an unfairly negative light there's not much the people involved can do even if they do object.

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I don't cast Burning Man itself in a negative light, but I do end up killing about a hundred people and injuring a couple thousand before it's over. None of this has anything to do with BM and its organizers, though--it's all the bad guys' fault.

Thanks, everyone! It sounds like I'm safe, so I'll go ahead and make the change.