History ExiledFromContinuity / LegalReasons

Elements ExiledFromContinuity for legal reasons.

* In ''[[Franchise/TransformersGeneration1 The Transformers]]'', the Jetfire toy was a licensed repaint of the Bandai [[Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross VF-1S Valkyrie]], and in [[ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel the comics]] and [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers the cartoon]], the character was to resemble the action figure [[MerchandiseDriven for obvious reasons]]. However, difficulties with one of the entities involved with ''Anime/{{Macross}}''/''Anime/{{Robotech}}'' (It's not clear whether it was Big West, Creator/TatsunokoProduction or Harmony Gold who put their foot down) made it obvious to Creator/{{Hasbro}}, Sunbow and Creator/ToeiAnimation that the character could not be used without a major hassle. Instead, the cartoon featured "[[CaptainErsatz Skyfire]]"... and the comic books used Skyfire but ''called him Jetfire.'' Thanks to the multiversal nature of ''Transformers'' fiction, none of this is a ''problem''--Skyfire and Jetfire are considered AlternateUniverse counterparts who happen to be unusually divergent, and modern depictions tend to feature a "Jetfire" who [[CompositeCharacter combines elements of both]]--but it's still weird. Also, due to this, modern toys that are ostensibly based on G1 Jetfire usually either use the cartoon's Skyfire design, or a Valkyrie-style look that nonetheless changes enough details to be legally distinct. This is also why the original G1 Jetfire toy is unlikely to ever be officially reissued by Hasbro or Takara. Following a legal ruling that Harmony Gold can no longer sue Hasbro, a super deformed version of the original Jetfire toy design was released as a Funko Pop in 2020.

** Another character based on a Bandai figure who suffered from this was Whirl, originally Louise Oberon's transforming Oberon Gazzette helicopter from the anime series ''Special Armored Battalion Dorvack''. It is believed that fear of similar legal trouble is why Whirl never appeared in the cartoon or ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel'' (though he did pop up in a few issues of the U.K. comic).

** ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' is entirely absent from the parks. While Disney owns the rights to all ''Kingdom Hearts'' characters, they're still not included for a few reasons: [[PopCulturalOsmosisFailure a good number of people wouldn't know who the characters are]], the few that do know probably wouldn't care, and Disney doesn't want to run afoul of any licensing issues that might come up with Creator/SquareEnix. Sora could be seen in the parks back when [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI the first game]] came out, but [[http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/disney/images/4/47/Sora_DLP.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20111030182254 the costume]] [[UncannyValley left much to be desired]]. The Mitsukoshi store at Epcot's Japan pavilion carries some ''Kingdom Hearts'' merchandise, but that's about it. As the series became more mainstream, however, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy's ''Kingdom Hearts'' outfits started appearing at meet-and-greets during the late 2010s, and it's become more common to hear Music/UtadaHikaru songs as ambiance.

* In ''VideoGame/PacMan'' Museum +, every appearance of Ms. Pac-Man in the older games is replaced with a new character called Pac-Mom. This is presumably due to a series of lawsuits involving the game's original developer GCC and At Games, who GCC sold their stake in Ms. Pac-Man to. This is also true of the 2022 ''Videogame/PacManWorld'' remake for the Nintendo Switch.

* ''Videogame/TheKingOfFightersXIV'' introduced the Creator/{{SNK}} pachinko characters Mui Mui and Love Heart to the series as part of Team Another World with Nakoruru from ''Videogame/SamuraiShodown''. While both characters were later featured in ''Videogame/SNKHeroinesTagTeamFrenzy'', they failed to return for ''Videogame/TheKingOfFightersXV'' (with Nakoruru instead recruiting Haohmaru and Darli Dagger to form Team Samurai), and were also left out of ''XIV'''s official manga adaptation and some ''KOF'' mobile games. It's believed that the two are currently in a state of legal limbo due to SNK having sold off its pachinko assets after the release of ''XIV''. Adding some potential fuel to this theory is the fact that the official backstory for Team Samurai doesn't mention either character by name, instead only alluding to a pair of unnamed friends of Nakoruru who were sent back to their home dimensions after the end of the last tournament.

* ''Videogame/TheKingOfFightersXIV'' introduced the Creator/{{SNK}} pachinko characters Mui Mui and Love Heart to the series as part of Team Another World with Nakoruru from ''Videogame/SamuraiShodown''. While both characters were later featured in ''Videogame/SNKHeroinesTagTeamFrenzy'', they failed to return for ''Videogame/TheKingOfFightersXV'' (with Nakoruru instead recruiting Haohmaru and Darli Dagger to form Team Samurai), and were also left out of ''XIV'''s official manga adaptation and some ''KOF'' mobile games. It's believed that the two are currently in a state of legal limbo due to SNK having sold off its pachinko assets after the release of ''XIV''. Adding some potential fuel to this theory is the fact that the official backstory for Team Samurai doesn't mention either character by name, instead only alluding to unnamed friends of Nakoruru who were sent back to their home dimensions after the end of the last tournament.

* ''Videogame/TheKingOfFightersXIV'' introduced new characters Love Heart and Mui Mui to the series, with the two having originated in a pair of pachinko games. While both characters were later featured in ''Videogame/SNKHeroinesTagTeamFrenzy'', they failed to return for ''Videogame/TheKingOfFightersXV'', and were also left out of ''XIV'''s official manga adaptation and some ''KOF'' mobile games. It's believed that the two are currently in a state of legal limbo due to SNK having sold off its pachinko assets after the release of ''XIV''.

* In ''[[Franchise/TransformersGeneration1 The Transformers]]'', the Jetfire toy was a licensed repaint of the Bandai [[Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross VF-1S Valkyrie]], and in [[ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel the comics]] and [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers the cartoon]], the character was to resemble the action figure [[MerchandiseDriven for obvious reasons]]. However, difficulties with one of the entities involved with ''Anime/{{Macross}}''/''Anime/{{Robotech}}'' (It's not clear whether it was Big West, Creator/TatsunokoProduction or Harmony Gold who put their foot down) made it obvious to Creator/{{Hasbro}}, Sunbow and Creator/ToeiAnimation that the character could not be used without a major hassle. Instead, the cartoon featured "[[CaptainErsatz Skyfire]]"... and the comic books used Skyfire but ''called him Jetfire.'' Thanks to the multiversal nature of ''Transformers'' fiction, none of this is a ''problem''--Skyfire and Jetfire are considered AlternateUniverse counterparts who happen to be unusually divergent, and modern depictions tend to feature a "Jetfire" who [[CompositeCharacter combines elements of both]]--but it's still weird. Also, due to this, modern toys that are ostensibly based on G1 Jetfire usually either use the cartoon's Skyfire design, or a Valkyrie-style look that nonetheless changes enough details to be legally distinct. This is also why the original G1 Jetfire toy is unlikely to ever be officially reissued by Hasbro or Takara.

* In ''[[Franchise/TransformersGeneration1 The Transformers]]'', the Jetfire toy was a licensed repaint of the Bandai [[Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross VF-1S Valkyrie]] toy, and in [[ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel the comics]] and [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers the cartoon]], the character was to resemble the toy [[MerchandiseDriven for obvious reasons]]. However, difficulties with one of the entities involved with ''Anime/{{Macross}}''/''Anime/{{Robotech}}'' (It's not clear whether it was Big West, Creator/TatsunokoProduction or Harmony Gold who put their foot down) made it obvious to Creator/{{Hasbro}}, Sunbow and Creator/ToeiAnimation that the character could not be used without a major hassle. Instead, the cartoon featured "[[CaptainErsatz Skyfire]]"... and the comic books used Skyfire but ''called him Jetfire.'' Thanks to the multiversal nature of ''Transformers'' fiction, none of this is a ''problem''--Skyfire and Jetfire are considered AlternateUniverse counterparts who happen to be unusually divergent, and modern depictions tend to feature a "Jetfire" who [[CompositeCharacter combines elements of both]]--but it's still weird. Also, due to this, modern toys that are ostensibly based on G1 Jetfire usually either use the cartoon's Skyfire design, or a Valkyrie-style look that nonetheless changes enough details to be legally distinct. This is also why the original G1 Jetfire toy is unlikely to ever be officially reissued by Hasbro or Takara.

* In ''VideoGame/PacMan'' Museum +, every appearance of Ms. Pac-Man in the older games is replaced with a new character called Pac-Mom. This is presumably due to a series of lawsuits involving the game's original developer GCC and At Games, who GCC sold their stake in Ms. Pac-Man to.

* ''Videogame/TheKingOfFightersXIV'' introduced new characters Love Heart and Mui Mui to the series, with the two having originated in a pair of Usefulnotes/{{pachinko}} games. While both characters were later featured in ''Videogame/SNKHeroinesTagTeamFrenzy'', they failed to return for ''Videogame/TheKingOfFightersXV'', and were also left out of ''XIV'''s official manga adaptation and some ''KOF'' mobile games. It's believed that the two are currently in a state of legal limbo due to SNK having sold off its pachinko assets after the release of ''XIV''.

* Starting with ''WesternAnimation/TheIceAgeAdventuresOfBuckWild'', Scrat is no longer allowed to appear in any installment of the ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'' franchise. This is because Ivy Supersonic, a cartoonist and fashion designer, has claimed for 18 years to be the one who created Scrat (or "Sqrat" as he was originally called) and managed to win her lawsuit against Creator/{{Disney}} in 2020. Thus, the company cannot use the character anymore.

* Characters that appeared in Creator/DICEntertainment-produced cartoons based on video games, such as [[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfZelda Spryte]], [[WesternAnimation/SuperMarioWorld Oogtar]], [[WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts]][[note]]Though Grounder and Coconuts are based on existing designs from ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'' onward, with the former being red in the games save one teal one in the UpdatedRerelease meant as a ShoutOut. Also, Scratch is loosely based off the enemy named Clucker. [[/note]], [[WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM Sally Acorn and the other Freedom Fighters]], and even WesternAnimation/{{Captain N|TheGameMaster}} are believed to be banned from appearing in their video game source material due to messy rights issues with the characters (though in the case of Captain N, he wasn't created by Nintendo nor appears in any Nintendo video games whatsoever). This is possibly the reason why they don't appear or get referenced at all in the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' series. The only official game appearances the Freedom Fighters and Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts ever made were ''VideoGame/SonicSpinball'' and ''VideoGame/DoctorRobotniksMeanBeanMachine'', as both were essentially MerchandiseDriven fare for the TV shows and developed in the United States.

** Another casualty is King Harkinian, who appears in both [[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfZelda the animated series]] and the CD-i games, but not in any of the Nintendo games. The legal status of said character is unknown since he's in a legal tangle with Philips, Nintendo, and Creator/DHXMedia (successors to Creator/DICEntertainment, the studio who made the animated series), so he is believed to be forbidden from appearing in any ''Zelda'' games.

* In ''VideoGame/PacMan'' Museum +, every appearance of Ms. Pac-Man is the older games is replaced with a new character called Pac-Mom. This is presumably due to a series of lawsuits involving the game's original developer GCC and At Games, who GCC sold their stake in Ms. Pac-Man to.

** Enforced in the games themselves to a certain degree; Disney has strict rules about how the franchises interact. This leads to both TheStationsOfTheCanon (in that the plots of the levels loosely follow the movies they're based on) and an AlienNonInterferenceClause (in that the natives of each world can't be told about other worlds). The rule of thumb seems to be that if you're tied to a particular movie, you're LockedOutOfTheLoop, though some characters get a bit of leeway in this, including Maleficent being one of the primary antagonists who often interacts with various Disney worlds, Ariel being told of it by Ursula, Triton figuring it out (and evidently aware of the Keyblade War) and [[spoiler: The Beast being a partner during Hollow Bastion]] in ''Kingdom Hearts I'', [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Cloud, Zack]] and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX Auron]] being plot-critical in the Colosseum stages in ''1'', ''Birth By Sleep'', and ''2'', [[spoiler: the TRON level being Hollow Bastion's operating system]] in ''Kingdom Hearts II'', Ursula attacking the Destiny Islands in a dream in the prologue of ''3D'', and both Woody and Buzz Lightyear learning of it in ''Kingdom Hearts III.'' Disney's own strict rules reached their highest point in ''Kingdom Hearts III'' when it limited how the games could portray the worlds and characters of ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}''.

** Enforced in the games themselves to a certain degree; Disney has strict rules about how the franchises interact. This leads to both TheStationsOfTheCanon (in that the plots of the levels loosely follow the movies they're based on) and an AlienNonInterferenceClause (in that the natives of each world can't be told about other worlds). The rule of thumb seems to be that if you're tied to a particular movie, you're LockedOutOfTheLoop, though some characters get a bit of leeway in this, including Ariel being told of it by Ursula, Triton figuring it out (and evidently aware of the Keyblade War) and [[spoiler: The Beast being a partner during Hollow Bastion]] in ''Kingdom Hearts I'', [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Cloud, Zack]] and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX Auron]] being plot-critical in the Colosseum stages in ''1'', ''Birth By Sleep'', and ''2'', [[spoiler: the TRON level being Hollow Bastion's operating system]] in ''Kingdom Hearts II'', and both Woody and Buzz Lightyear learning of it in ''Kingdom Hearts III.'' Disney's own strict rules reached their highest point in ''Kingdom Hearts III'' when it limited how the games could portray the worlds and characters of ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}''.

* Characters that appeared in Creator/DICEntertainment-produced cartoons based on video games, such as [[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfZelda Spryte]], [[WesternAnimation/SuperMarioBros Oogtar]], [[WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts]][[note]]Though Grounder and Coconuts are based on existing designs from ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'' onward, with the former being red in the games save one teal one in the UpdatedRerelease meant as a ShoutOut. Also, Scratch is loosely based off the enemy named Clucker. [[/note]], [[WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM Sally Acorn and the other Freedom Fighters]], and even WesternAnimation/{{Captain N|TheGameMaster}} are believed to be banned from appearing in their video game source material due to messy rights issues with the characters (though in the case of Captain N, he wasn't created by Nintendo nor appears in any Nintendo video games whatsoever). This is possibly the reason why they don't appear or get referenced at all in the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' series. The only official game appearances the Freedom Fighters and Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts ever made were ''VideoGame/SonicSpinball'' and ''VideoGame/DoctorRobotniksMeanBeanMachine'', as both were essentially MerchandiseDriven fare for the TV shows and developed in the United States.

* Similarly, characters that appeared in Creator/DICEntertainment-produced cartoons based on video games, such as [[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfZelda Spyrte]], [[WesternAnimation/SuperMarioBros Oogtar]], [[WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts]][[note]]Though Grounder and Coconuts are based on existing designs from ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'' onward, with the former being red in the games save one teal one in the UpdatedRerelease meant as a ShoutOut. Also, Scratch is loosely based off the enemy named Clucker. [[/note]], [[WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM Sally Acorn and the other Freedom Fighters]], and even WesternAnimation/{{Captain N|TheGameMaster}} are believed to be banned from appearing in their video game source material due to messy rights issues with the characters (though in the case of Captain N, he wasn't created by Nintendo nor appears in any Nintendo video games whatsoever). This is possibly the reason why they don't appear or get referenced at all in the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' series. The only official game appearances the Freedom Fighters and Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts ever made were ''VideoGame/SonicSpinball'' and ''VideoGame/DoctorRobotniksMeanBeanMachine'', as both were essentially MerchandiseDriven fare for the TV shows and developed in the United States.

* Similarly, characters that appeared in Creator/DICEntertainment-produced cartoons based on video games, such as [[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfZelda Spyrte]], [[WesternAnimation/SuperMarioBros Oogtar]], [[WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts]][[note]]Though Grounder and Coconuts are based on existing designs from ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'' onward, with the former being red in the games save one teal one in the UpdatedRerelease meant as a ShoutOut.[[/note]], [[WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM Sally Acorn and the other Freedom Fighters]], and even WesternAnimation/{{Captain N|TheGameMaster}} are believed to be banned from appearing in their video game source material due to messy rights issues with the characters (though in the case of Captain N, he wasn't created by Nintendo nor appears in any Nintendo video games whatsoever). This is possibly the reason why they don't appear or get referenced at all in the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' series. The only official game appearances the Freedom Fighters and Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts ever made were ''VideoGame/SonicSpinball'' and ''VideoGame/DoctorRobotniksMeanBeanMachine'', as both were essentially MerchandiseDriven fare for the TV shows and developed in the United States.

* In ''[[Franchise/TransformersGeneration1 The Transformers]]'', the Jetfire toy was a licensed repaint of the Bandai [[Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross VF-1S Valkyrie]] toy, and in [[Comicbook/TheTransformers the comics]] and [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers the cartoon]], the character was to resemble the toy [[MerchandiseDriven for obvious reasons]]. However, difficulties with one of the entities involved with ''Anime/{{Macross}}''/''Anime/{{Robotech}}'' (It's not clear whether it was Big West, Creator/TatsunokoProduction or Harmony Gold who put their foot down) made it obvious to Creator/{{Hasbro}}, Sunbow and Creator/ToeiAnimation that the character could not be used without a major hassle. Instead, the cartoon featured "[[CaptainErsatz Skyfire]]"... and the comic books used Skyfire but ''called him Jetfire.'' Thanks to the multiversal nature of ''Transformers'' fiction, none of this is a ''problem''--Skyfire and Jetfire are considered AlternateUniverse counterparts who happen to be unusually divergent, and modern depictions tend to feature a "Jetfire" who [[CompositeCharacter combines elements of both]]--but it's still weird. Also, due to this, modern toys that are ostensibly based on G1 Jetfire usually either use the cartoon's Skyfire design, or a Valkyrie-style look that nonetheless changes enough details to be legally distinct. This is also why the original G1 Jetfire toy is unlikely to ever be officially reissued by Hasbro or Takara.

** Another character based on a Bandai figure who suffered from this was Whirl, originally Louise Oberon's transforming Oberon Gazzette helicopter from the anime series ''Special Armored Battalion Dorvack''. It is believed that fear of similar legal trouble is why Whirl never appeared in the cartoon or [[Comicbook/TheTransformers the American comic book]] (though he did pop up in a few issues of the U.K. comic).

* The official Creator/{{Marvel|Comics}} Universe Wiki has a policy forbidding the creation of articles whose content is licensed to Marvel or is no longer owned by Marvel. This means any article based off ''ComicBook/TheTransformers'', ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'', Creator/HannaBarbera or their ''Franchise/StarWars'' comics ([[ComicBook/StarWarsMarvel1977 old]] and [[ComicBook/StarWarsMarvel2015 new]]) are forbidden. This could be either due to the Wiki being focused on characters explicitly in the Marvel Universe and created by Marvel, or due to fears of legal issues from the parent companies or artists of said licensed material. This is not the case with Wikia's Marvel Comics Database, which is not owned by Marvel.

* The Mewtwo featured in ''Anime/PokemonTheFirstMovie'' is owned by the estate of the movie's screenwriter, Creator/TakeshiShudo (despite The Pokémon Company owning the concept of Mewtwo). This is why the much-maligned ''Anime/PokemonGenesectAndTheLegendAwakened'' created a different, [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute if very similar]] Mewtwo, and why [[Anime/MewtwoStrikesBackEvolution the first movie's CGI remake]] required the permission of Shudo's estate. This appears to have softened with the appearance of the original Mewtwo in an episode of the ''Journeys'' anime.

* The estates of Siegel & Shuster, original creators of Franchise/{{Superman}}, won a court ruling that the concept of ComicBook/{{Superboy}} belonged to them. This is believed to have led to the death of one character, UsefulNotes/{{the Modern Age|OfComicBooks}} clone ComicBook/{{Superboy|1994}}, and the renaming of another. Even the ''WesternAnimation/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' cartoon, which was ''based on'' the concept of Superboy, instead has a teenage "young Superman" as its star. And the DVD of the '60s Filmation Superman cartoons had the Superboy shorts deleted. A later ruling determined that Kon-El (the '90s clone Superboy) is different enough from the original Superboy ("our" Superman as a teenager) to be used with impunity. Even more, it's since been ruled that Superboy is now owned by DC Comics instead. However, there was the problem of ''Superman'', which started this mess and what many people think is the main reason for The Comicbook/{{New 52}}. Since then, it's been ruled that DC owns Superman and his concepts flat out.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLEGOMovie'' was not able to use Indiana Jones and R2-D2 as main characters in the film because Lucasfilm was being purchased by Disney at the time, and they would have no interest in licensing out their characters to their biggest competitors (though they were able to sneak in a [[spoiler: cameo from Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, Chewbacca, C-3PO, and the ''Millennium Falcon'']] before the deal was finalized). They were also unable to secure Disney's permission to use Darth Vader for ''WesternAnimation/TheLEGOBatmanMovie'' as [[spoiler: a prisoner of the Phantom Zone, instead confirming via WordOfGod that he escaped]], and made fun of the issue in ''WesternAnimation/TheLEGOMovie2TheSecondPart'' by mentioning how Marvel wasn't responding to Bricksburg's calls for help.

** Enforced in the games themselves to a certain degree; Disney has strict rules about how the franchises interact. This leads to both TheStationsOfTheCanon (in that the plots of the levels loosely follow the movies they're based on) and an AlienNonInterferenceClause (in that the natives of each world can't be told about other worlds). The rule of thumb seems to be that if you're tied to a particular movie, you're LockedOutOfTheLoop, though some characters get a bit of leeway in this, including Ariel being told of it by Ursula, Triton figuring it out (and evidently aware of the Keyblade War) and [[spoiler: The Beast being a partner during Hollow Bastion]] in ''Kingdom Hearts I'', [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Cloud, Zack]] and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX Auron]] being plot-critical in the Colosseum stages in ''1'', ''Birth By Sleep'', and ''2'', [[spoiler: the TRON level being Hollow Bastion's operating system]] in ''Kingdom Hearts II'', and both Woody and Buzz Lightyear learning of it in ''Kingdom Hearts III.'' Disney's own strict rules reached their highest point in ''Kingdom Hearts III'' when it limited how the games could portray the worlds and characters of ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/Frozen2013''.

** According to one of the Looney Tunes comic artists, celebrity caricatures are OK with them unless noted otherwise, even for ones long forgotten such as Edna Mae Oliver, but there is one egregious exception--anything caricaturing actor Creator/PeterLorre, who was a fairly common sight in the older Looney Tunes. When the artist attempted to have him appear in the MadScientist role he played in ''Hair Raising Hare'' for a story, it was shot down due to legal issues with Lorre's estate, who have said they will no longer authorize using caricatures of him in that context. So the scientist from ''Water, Water Every Hare'' was added to substitute for him. Despite this, he reappeared in ''WesternAnimation/TheSylvesterAndTweetyMysteries'' and ''Film/LooneyTunesBackInAction''.

** Creator/GregWeisman also confirmed in an interview for ''Young Justice'' that similar embargos affected use of [[ComicBook/BlueBeetle Ted Kord / Blue Beetle II]] and ComicBook/{{Darkseid}} in season 1. Other ComicBook/NewGods could still show up, even those like DeSaad who worked directly with Darkseid, but his presence was hinted in the background as "unspeakable". These were similarly cleared up by season 2, with Darkseid showing up in the season finale as the partner of ComicBook/VandalSavage, while Ted Kord turned out to be a PosthumousCharacter murdered between seasons 1 and 2.

* In ''[[Franchise/TransformersGeneration1 The Transformers]]'', the Jetfire toy was a licensed repaint of the Bandai [[Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross VF-1S Valkyrie]] toy, and in [[Comicbook/TheTransformers the comics]] and [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers the cartoon]], the character was to resemble the toy [[MerchandiseDriven for obvious reasons]]. However, difficulties with one of the entities involved with ''Anime/{{Macross}}''/''Anime/{{Robotech}}'' (It's not clear whether it was Big West, Creator/TatsunokoProduction or Harmony Gold who put their foot down) made it obvious to Creator/{{Hasbro}}, Sunbow and Creator/ToeiAnimation that the character could not be used without a major hassle. Instead, the cartoon featured "[[CaptainErsatz Skyfire]]"... and the comic books used Skyfire but ''called him Jetfire.'' Thanks to the multiversal nature of ''Transformers'' fiction, none of this is a ''problem''--Skyfire and Jetfire are considered AlternateUniverse counterparts who happen to be unusually divergent, and modern depictions tend to feature a "Jetfire" who [[CompositeCharacter combines elements of both]]--but it's still weird. Also, due to this, modern toys that are ostensibly based on G1 Jetfire usually either use the cartoon design, or a Valkyrie-style look that nonetheless changes enough details to be legally distinct. This is also why the original G1 Jetfire toy is unlikely to ever be officially reissued by Hasbro or Takara.

** The Deluxe Insecticons and the Deluxe Vehicles didn't appear in either the cartoon or the comic (though they did appear in the UK comic... [[NoExportForYou despite not being sold in the UK]]). Like with Jetfire, their toys were licensed from another company - in this case Bandai, who were the main competitor of Takara (whom Hasbro collaborated with for ''Transformers'') in Japan. Since including them would mean advertising a competitor's product, they were left out.

* A complicated case in ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo''; after Compile's bankruptcy, SEGA owns the rights to ''Puyo Puyo'' and seemingly any character that has appeared in those games, but D4 Enterprise owns ''Madou Monogatari'', Puyo Puyo's parent RPG series. This leads to the situation where SEGA can make ''Puyo Puyo'' games and use the characters Compile initially created for those games, but cannot directly reference ''Madou Monogatari''. For example, the character Witch alludes to her grandmother Wish in the SEGA games, but never name drops her due to the copyright situation. Meanwhile D4 Enterprise basically holds the ''Madou Monogatari'' name and presumably the few exclusive characters from the games, but cannot use the characters from the ''Puyo Puyo'' franchise without negotiating with SEGA. SEGA has gotten around this by the use of soft reboots of the franchise, with Compile's characters being transported into other worlds via [[ExcusePlot excuse plots]], while D4 Enterprise and Compile Heart created thinly-veiled Expies of the ''Madou Monogatari'' characters in a parallel universe when making ''Sorcery Saga: Curse of the Great Curry God''.

*** Speaking of those unrelated legal issues, basically every Sonic comics character created by comic writers who aren't Ian Flynn prior to the move to IDW is permanently persona non-grata as far as Sega is concerned, because writer Ken Penders won the rights to the characters he created by default because Archie failed to prove his contract was work for hire due to not having the original contract.[[note]]Though as explained on CreatorKiller, Penders started the whole mess out of pettiness and his reputation was utterly destroyed in the process.[[/note]] This was the cause of the original continity resulting in a major case of AbortedArc and the continuity getting the aforementioned SoftReboot.
* When Creator/{{Rare}} was working with Nintendo, originally they planned on making the ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'', ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie'', and ''[[VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay Conker]]'' [=IPs=] take place in the same universe. This is most apparent with ''VideoGame/DiddyKongRacing'', where Diddy Kong, Banjo, and Conker appeared together, and [[AllThereInTheManual the manual]] alluding to off-screen adventures explaining how they knew each other. However when Rare was bought out by [[Creator/XboxGameStudios Microsoft]], they were forced to drop this idea, resulting the Donkey Kong and other Nintendo series no longer referencing any other Rare series. This notably impacted the aforementioned ''Diddy Kong Racing''; when it was remade for the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS, Banjo and Conker were replaced with Tiny Kong and Dixie Kong respectively, while the original UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 version never got a re-release. The only exception is when Banjo & Kazooie became playable characters in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' in 2019, but even then that game has characters from all different companies.