So I am writing two books in the past couple of years,but..my bad luck hits hard.

[kain_kusanagi]

PullusPardus said:

gumby_trucker said:
this is why you never start writing a book until you've patented the hell out of it. sorry you had to learn the hard way.

I honestly hate patents, and I can't see myself patenting a fictional ship , patenting an ancient name is also a very dick move.

I think you guys are talking about copyrights and tradmarks. Patents are for inventions.

As for copyrights. The easiest and fastest way to copyright something is to simply publish it. Copyright law give copyright to all published works. All you have to do is publish a short story with your characters and anything else important to the full book. Once it has a publish date it's yours forever. I'm pretty sure even just publishing it on the web counts too.

Tradmarks are another story. You need a lawer for that. But it's just for logos, slogans, etc.