While I realize that Tolkien's specific characters (Frodo, Elrond, Denethor, etc) are the IP of his estate to whom does the rest of it belong? If I want to write stories, computer or board games about dwarves, elves, halflings (hobbit is copyright, I suspect), orcs, trolls, etc are there licensing/royalty issues involved?|||There was a rather famous lawsuit between the Tolkien Estate and TSR, the makers of Dungeons %26amp; Dragons over this. Ultimately, the only things they were able to exert ownership of were original words such as Ent and Hobbit. The rest is common in folklore, even though Tolkien put the unique stamp on it that most such books and games rip-off today. So steal away, just leave out the Hobbits.|||If you plan to make money out of these stories and games, and you plan to make them recognisably Tolkien-esque (that is, capitalising on the brand recognition of Middle Earth), then you would need permission from Tolkien's estate.
If you just want to work in Tolkien's tradition (elves are tall and thin and sing about past glories, dwarves are short and stumpy and sing about gold, orcs are big and ugly and sing about... not sure... eating hobbits, probably), then there are plenty of authors who've done that without any problems.
For an example of how closely you can copy and get away with it, read the last few chapters of Eragon. (I wouldn't advocate that anybody read the whole thing.) That's where the dwarves show up, and they are *identical* to those in Tolkien. The long list of acknowledgements makes no mention of having got permission from his estate, and Paolini hasn't been sued for copying.|||I'm sure. You would have to take it up with his family or something.
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