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it could always be claimed that they didn't mean "Alpha Tau Omega" if any copyright infringement issues ever came to a head.
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It wouldn't be copyright infringement. Putting a real institution, whether a GLO, a university, or a chain restaurant, into a fictional story the way we've discussed on the thread is fair use. They are famous parts of our world, and you're allowed to talk about them in your fiction.
In contexts where using the real name is not OK (like labeling a product), using a nickname won't help you. You can't call your publishing company "The UCLA Press" and then argue that it stands for the University of Candles at Los Alamos. We know what you meant.
Re Anne Rivers Siddons and main characters...the best friend in "Heartbreak Hotel" is called a Pi Beta Phi by name, even though she was certainly breaking all kinds of standards that would have been in place in Alabama in the 1950's.
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