I think you’re touching on trademark infringement already with what you covered. I would also guess to remove any legal liability for slander/libel. There are legal protections for satire, but even that has limits. If you make a villain that kills people love a particular brand of burger that company could say you’re suggesting only criminals like their product opening up the author for a lawsuit.
WcDonalds is probably one of the most well known examples of changing a real name to one that is fictional, since McDonalds made it part of their bag for a few months.
Probably to completely sidestep copyright / permission concerns. But can you give an example?
I think you’re touching on trademark infringement already with what you covered. I would also guess to remove any legal liability for slander/libel. There are legal protections for satire, but even that has limits. If you make a villain that kills people love a particular brand of burger that company could say you’re suggesting only criminals like their product opening up the author for a lawsuit.
Right… and I really wanted the OP to give an example in case everyone was misunderstanding some nuance in what they were referring to.
WcDonalds is probably one of the most well known examples of changing a real name to one that is fictional, since McDonalds made it part of their bag for a few months.
They were not wrong:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/wc