Legal/Trademark can of worms question

M

markr

New member
Let's say that I want to write a lyric line such as "I pulled into McDonalds, to get a bag of fries..."

Since company names like "McDonalds" are trademarked, may I use it or not?

To further complicate matters, let's assume that I have no intention of selling this song, it's only a promotional demo.

Let the worm fallout begin...
Thanks,
Mark
 
Ever hear a Puff Daddy song? They sound like a fucking string of advertisements for cars and clothes. My major hang-up would be with the unwitting advert for a bunch of rich assholes, but if "puff [can] drive mercedes" you can pull into McDonalds.
 
I'm not completely sure, but tradenames that are very well advertised or get a lot of exposure become what's known as Public Domain, unless the reference to them is slanderous..for instance a line like "I went to MacD's and the french fries gave me syphillis"...you could then be a ripe target for a lawsuit....gibs
 
Well, suppose I said to you, "You know, you've been working hard lately". "You deserve a break today". The latter is an old MacDonald's saying, and I can sure use it whenever I want. Just because something is trademarked doesn't mean you can't use it.
There's a big difference between trademark, and copyright.
 
When I asked this question, I didn't even think about "Pink Cadillac", "Mercedes Boy", or "Lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz" (whatever the title to that one is), or other songs such as these...duh...

Wouldn't ya know I don't listen to Puff Daddy... who would have thought?
 
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