McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Locations in your writing

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RMatthewWare:
Towns are fair game.  Have you ever entered a city and seen the sign:  "Welcome to Kansas City"?  There's no copyright or trademark symbol after it.  Institutions are usually fair, as are most brands.  As long as you don't say, "John drove a Hyundai, and everyone knows what flaming buckets of death they are."  Hyundai might take offense at that.  The same result if your main character finds a finger in his chili at Wendy's.  In those cases, either be generic (John's import) or make something up (Walter's Burger Emporium instead of Wendy's).  Trademarks can be sensitive, though the only people that really get anal is the NFL.  Your character can drink a Coke while eating a Johnsonville Brat, as long as he doesn't do it at the Superbowl.  The NFL is really picky on you paying them to use the Superbowl name.  How many commercials have you seen where they've had to say "NFL championship game" or something like that.  It's because the NFL won't let them use their trademark without payment.

Matt

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