IAAL, though not an IP lawyer, and not a US-based one. It seems unusual that a fan-coined term would be subject to copyright (or trademark). There's a common law tort of passing off - essentially if Warner Bros/SPN can assert your keychain looked strikingly similar to WB/SPN merch or was passing itself off as authorised by/affiliated with WB/SPN, then it could make some argument that you infringed its IP rights. Which is crap, because this law is designed to catch intentional piracy, but I can possibly see an assertion being made in this case, even if your sale ID thing came with a disclaimer.
Sadly, if it's a fan-coined term, then it's unlikely any fan would have true rights over it! Such is the nature of fan creation. :(
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Date: 2010-07-08 12:42 pm (UTC)Sadly, if it's a fan-coined term, then it's unlikely any fan would have true rights over it! Such is the nature of fan creation. :(