Copyright Question

[RedRyder]

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this question, so please let me know if there's somewhere else I should be posting this.

Here's my question. I have a novel in which I occasionally reference a character as "Citizen Kane," though that is not the main character's name, just a nickname of sorts. My book's plot, time period, setting, characters, etc. have nothing to do with Orson Wells' "Citizen Kane." I just felt that it was an appropriate reference to my character in certain parts of the novel. Am I allowed to use this reference? Or would there be a copyright on this since Citizen Kane is also like a character and not just a title? I tried doing some research and couldn't find any specifics.

Any help provided is very much appreciated. And if anyone knows of any free resources I could use I'd so much appreciate it. Thanks everyone!

[bodwen]

How is it used?  Joking, or "Hi, I'm John, but my friends call me Citizen Kane." 

[dougie]

I'm not a lawyer, but I used to work for an intellectual property rights (TMs, copyrights, patents) reserch firm about 10 years ago.  There are a lot of ifs, but generally it would be a matter of to what degree you press the reference.  If you just reference the character a few times, it would probably be considered "fair use."  If you appropriate the character, especially with direct quotes, then you might have problems.  If it's just the nickname you describe, you'd probably be safe.

[RedRyder]

bodwen: It's used a few times for a specific group talking to each other about the main character. So a sentence might be, "Looks like Kane is on the move."

dougie: No I don't reference anything about the character from the Citizen Kane film. The code name Citizen Kane is used maybe a handful of times in my book. I thought it would be fine but I'm paranoid about those things.

Thank you both!