I was trying to explain to someone recently that this is why After and the fucking idea of you were allowed to be made. I made my dad (an attorney) explain the specifics and yeah, this is exactly it. It's not necessarily defamation (debatable) so they were allowed to make those books into films etc. It wasn't worth Harry's time or reputation to even acknowledge them. He just had to ignore it.
Hi, anon!
Yep! They also avoided using his name, so H couldn’t have done much anyway.
Imagine if H and L went after the 43k fan fics about their pairing for using their names in a defamatory manner! 😲 All the fic writers who's published their larry fics as books have changed H and L's names into something else to avoid any trademark issues, since they're now making money off it. Harry's also gone after people selling fake/bootleg merch with his name and image on it (it's so petty but whatever). So owning your own trademark as a celebrity will definitely protect you from being exploited.