Sauron, home security startup, plucks CEO out of Sonos

Re:Sauron, home security startup, plucks CEO out of Sonos by xenospn on Monday December 29, 2025 @12:01PM (#46422617)

They have no claim, unless you create another literary character or something in the likeness of the original character. Naming a company after a fictional character is not an issue.

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Re:Sauron, home security startup, plucks CEO out of Sonos by triceratops on Monday December 29, 2025 @12:18PM (#46422849)

I didn't know that and I find it surprising.

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Re:Sauron, home security startup, plucks CEO out of Sonos by ssl-3 on Monday December 29, 2025 @01:22PM (#46423590)

Sort of. Fictional character names are just words... unless these words are used in trade, at which point they become trademarks.

And in this context: "Sauron" is a registered trademark. https://trademarks.justia.com/772/04/sauron-77204394.html

This status doesn't necessarily give the owner absolute control of the mark, but it can limit the ways in which others use it in trade.

Things would be this way whether "Sauron" was ever the name of a fictional character or not. The use as a character name by the trademark owner neither implicitly enhances nor diminishes the trademark's integrity.

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