Regarding copyright on characters in the United States [1]: > US Copyright Statute of 1976 does not explicitly mention fictional characters as subject matter

Regarding copyright on characters in the United States [1]: > US Copyright Statute of 1976 does not explicitly mention fictional characters as subject matter of copyright, and their copyrightability is a product of common law. Historically, the Courts granted copyright protection to characters as parts of larger protected work and not as independent creations. They were regarded as ‘components in a copyrighted works’ and eligible for protection as thus.[5] But in practice, if you write a fanfiction story which uses Mickey Mouse as a character and get sued by Disney for copyright infringement, you will not win in court regardless of how different your fanfiction story is from any Disney story unless you can afford as many lawyers of comparable quality as Disney can. And even then, who knows? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_protection_for_fictional_characters#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_protection_for_ficti...