Common Brand Name Usage

[SmilingLez]

Good evening, friends. My WIP is to the point that OnlyFans will start to be part of the story.

The question is - would it be safe to use the OnlyFans name in the story, or should I make up a name while keep it close enough that readers will know what I'm referring to? I supposed the question could be for any copyrighted brand name of any product or service.

Thanks in advance.

In my latest free verse flash fiction hybrid Sixty Minutes, I emailed Lovense to ask if could include their vibe Ferri. They said no problem.

 

[ronde]

Good evening, friends. My WIP is to the point that OnlyFans will start to be part of the story.

The question is - would it be safe to use the OnlyFans name in the story, or should I make up a name while keep it close enough that readers will know what I'm referring to? I supposed the question could be for any copyrighted brand name of any product or service.

Thanks in advance.

Per the Congressional Research Service, a service that provided information to the US Congress, a trademark, which is what a brand name is, is not protected unless it is used in commerce in a manner that creates confusion. In other words, unless you "invent" a website in your story and call it "OnlyFans", there is no violation of the trademark laws. It's the same for any brand name that's trademarked. You can freely sprinkle trademarked brand names throughout your stories as long as you don't name another product with the same trademarked name.

There have been cases where the use of a "trademarked" feature of a product by another manufacturer resulted in a lawsuit. One that comes to mind is when Gibson guitars sued Dean guitars for using the specific body shapes trademarked by Gibson. I believe Gibson also sued a Japanese guitar manufacture over the use of the "open book" detail of the headstock. Gibson won the lawsuits because the shapes created confusion about which guitar was a true Gibson and which wasn't.

 

[OddLove]

I'm ten episodes into a Femdom series that has a dominatrix who earns a living selling content on OF. Never had a story rejected for it, never been contacted by anyone who had a problem with it.

In Erotica, OF is just another career choice. It's about as normal as a character being a Uber Driver or working at Walmart.

Like others mentioned, just be careful about slandering and defaming whatever company your characters work for.

 

[PapaRomantic]

I really appreciate all of your comments. I'm still working on the story and I know which way I'm going to go. I'm going to say only nice things about OF.