rampeer said:
Ouch. I don't feel that good about indie game dev anymore.

Hahah, no, this is standard stuff! Looking at contracts, advice regarding IP rights, that sort of thing!

Tom Sloper said:
My assumption (unwarranted) was that there was a contract matter - either an opportunity or a problem.

There …

Thaumaturge said:

Now, you mention that price is an obstacle--and believe me, I very much sympathise. That said, since this is for an engine demo, it seems to me that you might be able to keep the scope small and thus perhaps reduce the number of assets required.

That is potentially possible. I reall…

There's a clear violation if it has an active trademark and is in active use. It is lower risk if it has been dead for decades. But regardless of what name you choose, the risk of lawsuit is not zero. It can never be reduced to zero risk. 

4 hours ago, BlueFlute said:

Lets say you make the super villain name: "Varth Dador"....but he looks identical to Darth Vador. This I'm pretty sure would raise flags, (I'm no expert), but if there are super close similarities involved your going to be infringing upon a copyright.…

Again, thank you very much for your help.

Legal firm Morrison Rothman have announced that they will be offering free legal services to qualifying indie developers as part of their new "Jump Start Program".

Further details are still to be provided, but we currently know that the firm will be starting out offering pro bono (free) serv…