/vr/ - Retro Games

Frankenstein's creature's rights are a bit of a mess, but the gist of it is that the iconic design of green screen, the plain clothing, bolts to the neck, flat top and scar on the forehead is copyrighted to Universal and any use featuring that design must be licenced to them. The reason for this being that the Creature's design was created by Universal's own staff, while in Mary Shelley's novel he's just vaguely described (and the illustration in the cover looks nothing like the design we all know and love).
On the other hand, Boris Karloff's likeness is a trademark in itself owned by the Karloff state, so his likeness must be licenced separately if you want The Creature to have his face.

So, for the longest time, how did Konami just got away with doing this? Especially during the retro days, but it even went a few years beyond the treshold year; Never licencing shit, just putting the Creature from Universal in Castlevania without giving a fuck, at least until their bigger budget Lords of Shadow game, which was the worst design ever.