So a big plot point in the book I've been working on for over three years now is a pharmaceutical lab offficially titled Serpent Scale Inc. Or the "snake eyes" building becuase of how the towers that comprise the building are designed. I'm watching youtube and there's a commercial for a movie called 'snake eyes'. Can I now not use that term in what I'm writing?
Book titles aren't copyrightable (if that's the right term) but exact prose, specific narratives, characters, etc. are. Nobody owns the phrase 'Snake Eyes'. Even the two towers thing you describe is similar to the Rx/medicine symbol which is probably hundreds of years old. Unless the plot points in your 'Snake Eyes' closely resemble the other fictional works using the 'Snake Eyes' title, I wouldn't worry about it.
I'm 77 years old. The term "snake eyes" has been applied to a throw of the dice that turns up two ones ever since I can remember. I don't think you'll be in any trouble for using it to describe a building.
