Plagarism

You need to get thee to a lawyer who specializes in copyright. This sort of question cannot be answered without a fairly substantial expenditure of time on the part of the lawyer, and that ain't free. But, since you would be selling this book for profit, you really should take the precaution.

Plagiarism
Yikeseee!
That was my fear - however, considering my luck so far with agents with a different book, I don't' really want to shell out heaps of money then get another pile of "thanks, but no thanks" letters dropping through my door.
I also don't want to send the book to agents and have them blacklist me because they feel it is plagiarised.
Very complicated!
Thanks for you reply!

Re: Plagarism

A writer's style can't be copyrighted, nor can plots or literary devices like alliterative rhymes. Pictures, on the other hand, can be copyrighted, and copying the work of an artist too closely can lead to charges of copyright infringement. And fictional characters can enjoy protection under copyright even apart from the texts that create them. For example, I can write a novel about an suave, sophisticated international spy, but I can't write a novel with James Bond as the central character. So if you're inspired by Dr. Seuss's "Cat in the Hat," for instance, you'd be well advised to make your version "The Rat with a Bat" rather than "The Cat with a Slightly Different Hat."

Another point to bear in mind is that certain literary characters can also be trademarked, which can be a stronger protection than that afforded by the copyright laws. If a character is used to promote some product (e.g. the thousands of commercial products featuring Snoopy or Mickey Mouse), then any character that bears a strong similarity to that trademarked character (not just directly copying that character) might be considered as infringing on the trademark.

Plagiarism
Thank you soooo much for this. It makes me feel brave enough to send it to an agent or two and see. I think I will make it clear in my letter that I was inspired by the other author, so that I can't be accused of trying to hide the similarity!
Thanks again
Jo