Are Orcs copyrighted? February 6, 2013 7:52 AM   Subscribe  If
you look up "Orc" on Wikipedia, it says that, rather that coming
from, say, German folklore (as I assumed), they first appeared
in Tolkien's works. But if that's the case, how can Orcs appear
in all sorts of fantasy books and video games? Or am I just
naive, and royalties are being paid to the Tolkien estate, such
as by the creators of Dungeons and Dragons?  If this question
seems ridiculous, consider "mithril." According to Wikipedia,
it's copyrighted by the Saul Zaentz company. Therefore,
presumably, if you use the concept of mithril in your work, you
must not only get their permission, such as by paying them
royalties. But why doesn't the same situation obtain for Orcs?
posted by gnossie to Law & Government (10 answers total) 4 users
marked this as a favorite In general you can copyright artistic
expressions, like books, poems, etc., but not individual words,
concepts, or ideas. So nobody can copyright orcs, or mithril, in
and of themselves. (T