I’m writing a fantasy series, but I’m so worried about my world-building and my character names. Let me explain. Let’s say there’s a group of warriors who can wield magic from the Sun, and I named them Golden Spears. But that name could already have been used for another group of warriors who wield light magic in another fantasy book or a video game. I can create a city shaped like a crescent moon and full of silver buildings, but that city could have existed in another book. I’m doing my research, but it’s not possible to check every book, every game, or every movie. I’m writing my book in English, but it’s not my native language. Could these kinds of similarities be a problem?
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- 1As a fun exercise, go to goodreads and search to see how many different books and series titles contain the name "Ravenwood"Arcanist Lupus– Arcanist Lupus2025-11-22 22:42:10 +00:00Commented Nov 22 at 22:42
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2 Answers
You can't copyright ideas. A group of solar-powered warriors, or a city shaped like a crescent moon and full of silver buildings, are not things that can be copyrighted. Even if these ideas already exist elsewhere, as long as your version of the idea isn't completely identical to someone else's (i.e. you've knowingly plagiarised their work), you won't be in any trouble.
Names can be trademarked, but while I am not a lawyer, my understanding is that just calling a group "the Golden Spears" isn't enough to infringe on a trademark. Again, there has to be some kind of clear and obvious similarity between your Golden Spears and the trademarked Golden Spears before the trademark holder has any chance of winning a lawsuit against you (and that's only if the name is already trademarked in the first place - if you're unsure, then again, I'd recommend contacting a legal expert who can check those sorts of things for you).
Names are not protected by copyright law. Some names may be protected under trademark law. (U.S. Copyright Office)
For a name to be registered as a trademark, it must be distinctive.
In trademark law, "distinctive" means a mark is unique enough to identify a product or service and set it apart from competitors. A distinctive mark is memorable and recognizable to consumers, unlike generic or merely descriptive terms (which are typically rejected for registration). Examples for distinctive marks (that can be registered as a trademark) include made-up words like "Kodak" or unexpected uses of common words like "Apple" for computers.
In this sense, "Mickey Mouse" or "Luke Skywalker" are distinctive, while "Golden Spears", which is merely descriptive, is not. It is therefore unlikely that anyone has registered the name "Golden Spears" as a trademark for a group of fictional characters carrying golden spears. It could be registered as a trademark for chewing gum or virus protection software, where the phrase is not descriptive of the product it designates.
The trademark office for your jurisdiction (or the one your want to publish in) probably offers an online search in their database. For example, trademarks registered in the United States can be researched on the website of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, here: https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/search
To search for the exact phrase "golden spears", you enter CM:"golden spears" in the search box. There are 0 results. (There are 8 results for "Luke Skywalker" and 35 for "Mickey Mouse".)
There are also databases that allow a search across different jurisdictions, such as the one by the World Intellectual Property Organisation: https://branddb.wipo.int/en/quicksearch When you select for the search strategy to "Match exact expression" from the dropdown to the right of the search term, there are, again, 0 results for "golden spears".
