I can't give you legal advice on that, but if you look for "Columbo" in the book selections on Amazon, you should find numerous books with Columbo in the title -- not so much the books "starring" Columbo, which presumably are licensed differently and selectively, but rather the books that talk about Columbo without being actual "Columbo" stories. The authors or publishers of those may be able to give you some guidance, if you can contact them -- although I would caution that copyrighted images present different issues that just using the Columbo name with an *original* image. Good luck!