Can your character have the same name as another?

For characters, the answer is often yes, but with more exceptions. If you name your character the same as a famous fictional character, readers (and perhaps a judge) might think you’re attempting to cash in on the character name by creating confusion in the reader’s mind.

Can you plagiarize characters?

Plagiarism is essentially taking the words of another and passing it off as one’s own. Ideas, plots, scenes, and characters can be plagiarized too.

Are names copyrighted?

Copyright does not protect names, titles, slogans, or short phrases. In some cases, these things may be protected as trademarks.

How do I get rights to a name?

Registering a trademark for a company name is pretty straightforward. Many businesses can file an application online in less than 90 minutes, without a lawyer’s help. The simplest way to register is on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Web site, www.uspto.gov.

Is it plagiarism to take another person’s idea?

Many people think that plagiarism only means copying another person’s sentence word by word. But legally it’s also plagiarism to take another person’s idea. Ideas, concepts or structure can also be plagiarized, provided they are an original composition.

How do you know if a story is not plagiarized?

If you take the characters of an already existing universe/world/work-of-fiction and put them into a completely new world that you created entirely on your own, where the characters have a different history and different experiences, and you don’t even need to know the source material anymore, you are per definition not plagiarizing.

Is it possible to change the name of a character?

The answer can only be: no. Even if their looks are similar or the same, their experiences, their entire past and often even wishes, dreams and ambitions were changed. So if you renamed that character, you would have in fact an original new character with their own story.

Is it plagiarism if I copy Harry Potter?

Per definition you didn’t, because you consciously copied Harry Potter. That is plagiarism. Now it is true that basic concepts cannot be plagiarized. But basic concepts really means just that: basic.