Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Texas

I do small art commissions for original character designs. One person is asking for designs of her characters that are based off "Lord of the Rings" (for the online role playing game from Turbine), but are original designs using the design tools of the game. Is it copyright infringement to illustrate these characters?


Asked on 2/08/12, 8:35 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Nancy Delain Delain Law Office, PLLC

If you illustrate LOTR with your original character designs, that's likely to be fine; Professor Tolkien never actually told us what a hobbit looks like, and there are many renditions of them out there.

Using a game's design tools to create your own characters is likely to be fine.

If you use someone else's designs for the LOTR characters, that is likely to be infringement.

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Answered on 2/08/12, 10:07 am


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