J. Carmody of Serenity Studios in Sydney, Australia, saw the news of Todd McFarlane Production's bankruptcy due to a major lawsuit (see 'Todd McFarlane Productions Files Chapter 11'), and perhaps Steven Bates' column on the topic (see 'I Think I Can Manage -- Let's Do the Twist'), and sent us his thoughts:

When I read the lawsuit and the $15,000,000 price tag that has now been levied against McFarlane I was astonished.

Here is a case were the use of a name has been used in an attempt to destroy (lets face it, a price tag like that amounts to precisely that) someone's business.

From my understanding you do not 'own' your name, and the use of a name in a defamation case would have (or should have anyway) been based on the portrayal of the entire character.  In this case, if the character of Tony Twist (the Mobster) was 6 feet tall and previously a hockey player based in St. Louis then grounds could be laid that defamation has occurred (kind of like proving a work has been copied, number of points of common cross-over).

With this case, a precedent has been set (I could be wrong, not being a lawyer).  Your career not going anywhere?  Find someone using your name in a fictitious context in an unfavorable light and blame them.  Not only fictional, you could (possibly) extend this to a real life event.  But why stop there?

A business launches a product using the same name you use (in this case let's say a nickname) that results in you being ridiculed (and thereby damaging your potential career prospects).  As an example, you have the nickname of Longhorn.  Don't ask me why or how you came up with this nickname, but let's say it stuck and everyone in business refers to you as such.  Now Microsoft is working on their Longhorn OS, but the release date has been put back (not to mention it is linked to Microsoft)...your career takes a tumble (for reasons that may or may not have anything to do with Microsoft's project delays).  Does this mean you can now sue Microsoft for defamation of character because their choice of project name reflects badly on your nickname?

Till now I would have said not a chance...

Take it from another angle... can a company/individual sue someone for being named after them (in the case of a company, a character they created) and failing to live up to the perceived value of the name?

It will never happen?  Seems to me that it just got that one step closer to actually occurring.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the columnist and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.