" To ExistentialDisorder: I'm afraid Cooler's right. You can copyright a word, if you want to spend the money and go through the legal trouble. Marvel Comics, believe it or don't, owns the word 'mutant.' And while they're not very strict about its public use, they make damned certain no other comic company uses it. It's why DC coined the phrase 'metahuman'. Also, the word 'xerox' is copyrighted. Technically, any time you use it it's supposed to be capitalized and though it's common practice to do otherwise, it's not supposed to refer to making copies. It's supposed to be used to refer to the machine that makes copies."

No you cannot either copyright or "own" a word. You can however trademark it (literally a "mark of trade" representing a business & their goods/services). However a trademark does have some restrictions. It is industry specific and outside of that industry can be freely used even trademarked by a different type of business.

Using the example of Marvel Comcs & "mutant". Assuming they have trademarked the term they can only restrict it's use WRT to comic books & the characters involved. Legally there is nothing they can do if I want to open a chain of restaurants named "Mutantburgers". edited to add: *"...and DON'T call me Shirley"*Message edited on: 03/10/2005 17:27