[Other] Avoid getting a Cease & Desist Letter

[Jcool]

I don't like to toot my own horn, but to call the ROM hack I've been working on amazing might not be doing it enough justice. That being said, I'm planning on rolling out a ton of promotional content next year to build up hype for said hack, and I'm also making a music album with the same name. I may have to get lucky to get the amount of views (1,000,000+) that the trailer for Pokemon Prism got, but the point I'm trying to make is that with the ridiculous amount of hype that was built up until the intended release date, the creator got slapped with the C&D.

I can't afford to have something like that happen to me, because even though I'm not going to make a cent off of the ROM hack, part of my plan is to retain fans of the game to become subscribers of my YouTube channel and fans of the music. Obviously there is always the option to make a game from scratch as opposed to making it a Pokemon ROM hack, but I've already decided that is not what I want to do. I've thought about calling my ROM hack (Unique Name): The ROM Hack as opposed to Pokemon (Unique Name) Version, and avoid ever using the Pokemon logo in any videos, and all of the other promotion, and actually make the smallest amount of references to Pokemon as possible while still having people know it's a Pokemon game. My concern with this idea is that might just limit the amount of traffic I would maybe otherwise get with continuing to use Pokemon in the name, and I don't know that going that route would even guarantee not getting a Cease and Desist letter. I also plan on explicitly stating in every video and other piece of promo that the hack is not for sale and no money will be made from it.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions I maybe have not considered that would help to avoid getting a C&D? I know a lot of people undertake a ROM hack do it a lot more casually, not really expecting a C&D to begin with for whatever reason, but this is something that everyone who makes a ROM hack should be worried about, because it won't be a good feeling when you've clocked in a ton of hours into making it only to have it shut down, and on that note, I'm not trying to have my ROM hack "leaked" like how Prism was.

 

[BluRose]

honestly dw about it
prism got one because it was really really good and had amassed a following from brown, many people having joined romhacking because of it. the fact that prism was developed over 6 years helps its case even more; its polish is extraordinary. prism likely would not have been c&d'd if released right now as well; its c&d was likely a product of its release's proximity to SuMo's release.
overall
if you want to avoid a cease and desist, come back when in 14 years you've released a well-polished hack that has amassed a gargantuan following and your release date coincides with nintendo's. then we can talk about avoiding a c&d~