Copyright infringement question

[Carol]

Tonks wrote:
>
> When Warner Brothers bought the rights from Rowling, I think that
they bought the rights to trademark everything. And if I understand 
correctly a trademark is stronger than a copyright. I tried to find
the page where I read about WB and the trademarks for the movies a
couple of years before anyone knew the names of the books. I couldn't
find it again, of course! But I found this. And I read that a title of
a book is not copyrighted or trademarked but the contents can be
copyrighted.
><snip>

Carol responds:

I've been researching the subject, and I've found that you can't
copyright anything as short as a character's name or a title, which
can't qualify as a literary work. You can only copyright the work as a
whole to prevent others from claiming your work as their own or
quoting it without permission (though "fair use" allows critics,
reviewers, and others to quote and comment on excerpts from the work).
I won't get into whether the published Lexicon falls under "fair use,"
but it appears that using the name of a character for profit would
fall under trademark infringement, not copyright infringement.
(Whether an author can refer to another author's character in a novel
without permission, I still don't know. I'd say, better to be safe,
not to mention courteous, than sorry.)

At any rate, the official "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"
website states that the characters and "related indicia" are all
trademarks of Warner Bros. So does that mean Albus Dumbledore is no
longer JKR's character despite her statements that "He's my character"
and "He is what he is"? (Of course, as his creator, she has the right
to say what she wants to about him, or any of the others, but it looks
as if when she sold the movie rights to Warner Bros., they trademarked
the characters' names (and the names of places and Houses) without
including her in the trademark ownership. So the theme park, video
games, and action figures are all based on the movies, not the books,
and Warner Bros. gets a share in the profits but JKR doesn't? Is that
how it works? Or does Warner Bros. merely get to sue people, like the
people in India who tried to create a Hogwarts Castle without
permission? I thought JKR was involved in that suit, too, even though
the name (and image?) of Hogwarts castle is Warner Bros.' trademark,
not hers.

Okay, I have a headache now. And I still don't know whether a
disclaimer that no copyright or trademark infringement is intended is
sufficient protection for fanfic.

Carol, happy to see the birthday wishes for Severus Snape (TM) on
JKR's website