Trademark infringement?

[jdalton]

In my comic, which I am going to self-publish very soon (next week) and try to sell, there is a car (a flying car) with the Mitsubishi logo on it. I used it because of its historical significance (hee-hee) but it's pretty much just a logo on a car. The name is never stated explicitly. Can I get sued for using a trademark in this way or is it fair game if it's incidental to the plot? I know I've read plenty of books that use brand names throughout and I have a hard time believing the authors go around asking for permission for every one, but... I don't know. If I'm gonna change it, I'd better change it now.

[admin]

I am not a lawyer, but my understanding is that you can only infringe a car manufacturer's trademark if you sell a car with that trademark. In other words, your product must be in competition with the owner of the logo. So, you should be fine. Comics show trademarked products all the time.

[jdalton]

That's great, thanks! I figured that was probably the case (or I wouldn't have included the logo in the first place), but it's always hard to know what legal stuff is going on behind the scenes when a person actually has a publisher to sort these things out for them.