rowyn

I don't know the exact legal details, but as I understand it, while you can't lose the copyright on your book, you can lose the right to block imitators. So you could lose the right to stop people from writing books in your setting with your characters. Or sell merchandise based on your work. I guess it works much like trademark enforcement? But I don't think you actually have to trademark everything in your story in order to retain control of the characters, etc. and stop other people from using them.