Mentioning characters from literature and other media in your novel

chracatoa

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(Note: I know there's another thread about IP, but that one is about companies)

One of my beta readers for the sequel mentioned that I may have copyright problems because I mention a lot of characters from other novels and media (think Marvel and DC superheroes, Harry Potter, Star Wars, etc.) I never use any part of the actual writing/dialogue, but I do write about the wand-ownership rules in Harry Potter, for instance, or say things like "jumping like Super Mario."

Would that be a problem? Ready Player One does it a *lot*, and I've read other books that would also have problems.
 

chracatoa

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I don’t know about IP problems, but I would think it would limit your book’s shelf life.

Possibly, but I would think that most of them are timeless. Superheroes have been around since the 60's. In fact, I grew up in the 80's reading Marvel superheroes. Harry Potter is already a classic.

I did avoid using company names such as Facebook, Snapchat. They may become the next AOL, ICQ, etc.
 

blacbird

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Superheroes have been around since the 60's. 30's

Editorially corrected for accuracy with the history of comic books. But, hey, there was that guy Thor. And before that, Beowulf. And before that, Gilgamesh.

"Mentioning" characters like Superman and Batman doesn't present a legal problem. Using them as characters in your own story most certainly does, though I doubt you're doing that. But, in terms of reader response, you could easily get into the category of annoying if you do too much such "mentioning". Be judicious.

caw
 

chracatoa

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Editorially corrected for accuracy with the history of comic books. But, hey, there was that guy Thor. And before that, Beowulf. And before that, Gilgamesh.

"Mentioning" characters like Superman and Batman doesn't present a legal problem. Using them as characters in your own story most certainly does, though I doubt you're doing that. But, in terms of reader response, you could easily get into the category of annoying if you do too much such "mentioning". Be judicious.

caw

I know. I was thinking Silver Age, or, more specifically, Stan Lee. :)
 

quianaa2001

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When I asked about something similar my thread was closed because it was 'legal advice' which it wasn't but this is what I decided to do. The love interest in my book is a comic book writer who once worked at Marvel. I decide to mention the name of the company and some characters he wrote for like Spider-Man. As I'm hoping to get an agent so I decided to leave the references in and if there's a problem then at that stage the agent would help me change things. Hope that helps