QUESTION
Would this company be able to trademark these words / phrases?
Asked on Oct 09th, 2014 on Intellectual Property - New York
More details to this question:
If I were to use some class / job names from Final Fantasy (a game by Square Enix) in a game I'm helping make (which is a non-profit FF inspired game); such as "Red / Blue / Black / White Mage or Paladin" for example. Would they be able to sue us? Even if we changed the designs? I understand that the word and use of "mage" or "paladin" can be used by anyone in anything or the gaming community would have people suing each other all over. All I'm asking is would we be able to use them if we changed them slightly from how Square Enix defines them? Or would we be able to use them as is? I did some research on trademarks, copyrights, and patents and to my understanding they wouldn't be able to trademark / copyright that word / phrase since it doesn't exactly define a "good or service".
1 ANSWER
Whether a mark is registrable or not is a fact specific inquiry. An attorney would need to know the specific mark as well as the class in which registration is sought, and then do a search.
Even after that the attorney could only offer an opinion as to whether registration is likely.
And no attorney will do the work for free.
Answered on Oct 10th, 2014 at 12:16 PM