Copyright Question

[AmyNeudaiz]

Before I renamed my character in 1.0 I did a search to see if "Razgriz" was copyrighted by Namco and I never found anything so I figured it was okay.
But now with this contest "Casting Call" I'm second guessing myself before I enter since the rules are very clear about copyright penalties. Was I right that this name was never copyrighted/trademarked by Namco? I don't know much about these laws ヽ(￣д￣ )ノ

[AmyNeudaiz]

No one can help me out?

[kidvideo]

A quick google search... http://www.rightsofwriters.com/2011/...ers-can-i.html

[Tadacho]

Your name isn't going to appear. You're going to be an NPC extra in the background.

Though I don't know if that's the concern here?

[AmyNeudaiz]

A quick google search... http://www.rightsofwriters.com/2011/...ers-can-i.html

That doesn't quite answer my question aside from that being an opinion blog, it's different circumstances. I'm not emulating a character since the term Razgriz is from a location within the game that plays an important symbolic role in the story narrative.
So a simplification of what I'm asking would be; would using a name from another game for my character constitute as copyright infringement?

Your name isn't going to appear. You're going to be an NPC extra in the background.

Though I don't know if that's the concern here?

It's in the ToS that using a name that's copyrighted will land you in some hot water and the contest rules remind you of that rule.

The following factors may also result in disqualification:
Infringements upon copyright/intellectual property, personal credit, privacy, etc.

[kidvideo]

As you describe, most likely. But as Tadacho says, you'll be an NPC extra. This is for a cutscene, & there aren't names above NPC's in cutscenes.

[Tsuwu]

You're fine.
Namco doesn't have the money to copyright every name of every place in every game, and they definitely don't have the budget to go chasing down every fan that uses a name from an IP to litigate.
You'll be good to go.

[AmyNeudaiz]

As you describe, most likely. But as Tadacho says, you'll be an NPC extra. This is for a cutscene, & there aren't names above NPC's in cutscenes.

That's not quite what I was worrying about. Maybe I'm explaining wrong? lol. Either way, Tsuwu answered my question.

You're fine.
Namco doesn't have the money to copyright every name of every place in every game, and they definitely don't have the budget to go chasing down every fan that uses a name from an IP to litigate.
You'll be good to go.

I was more worried about the reaction of Square Enix but you answered my question fairly. Thanks.

[Tchoc]

Alright, so here's a quick rundown of how these things work.

Copyright is the inherent protection of any intellectual work as soon as it takes material form. There's no need to file any paperwork with anybody, though it is common enough to file the work with one of a number of organizations for the purposes of proving copyright if any cases do come up. This is simply to establish an unquestionable date that the copyright took effect by. Razgriz is a single word and not a fully formed intellectual work and as such does not qualify for protection under copyright law. You're safe there.

A trademark is a filed and purchased protection for words, phrases, and images that are uniquely and inextricably linked to a brand or product. Razgriz could conceivably be protected by trademark if it meets that qualification. Now, does it? An inquiry could take a while, but an easy way of finding out is to see if the word is in fact unique to Namco's Ace Combat or if it exists in any other form. I couldn't find anything that might constitute a pre-existing, non-referential use of the word so you very well might be in trouble there. However, I also didn't find any explicit trademark associated to Razgriz nor any reason to believe that it is trademarked.

Summary of findings: The concept of Razgriz as a whole is protected under the copyright by the protections offered to Ace Combat 5, but it seems unlikely that the word itself is protected in any way.

[AmyNeudaiz]

Thanks so much Tchoc, that answers that really well.
I actually did do a good search on Trademarked names and Razgriz didn't show up at all but then I learned Copyright and Trademark laws differ so that was my confusion (hence the post). Seems like I'm all good.