Question about intellectual property legalities
by J Thelen · in General Discussion · 03/17/2001 (5:54 pm) · 5 replies
Does anyone out there know the legal ins and outs of game development?
I have numerous ideas for a game, but many of them are inspired by games I have enjoyed, and my fear is that I will reach a certain level of development without knowing that I am infringing on intellectual property.
Let me be more specific. I am drawing up designs for a game inspired by Thief. It will be open-ended, instead of mission-based, with an emphasis on thieving for a living. There will be many points where this game would differ from Thief, but there will also be many points that would be similar. Although it may lack originality, would I also be setting myself up for a legal quandry?
Does anyone know of any links that may clarify the legal lines?
Many thanks to all.
I have numerous ideas for a game, but many of them are inspired by games I have enjoyed, and my fear is that I will reach a certain level of development without knowing that I am infringing on intellectual property.
Let me be more specific. I am drawing up designs for a game inspired by Thief. It will be open-ended, instead of mission-based, with an emphasis on thieving for a living. There will be many points where this game would differ from Thief, but there will also be many points that would be similar. Although it may lack originality, would I also be setting myself up for a legal quandry?
Does anyone know of any links that may clarify the legal lines?
Many thanks to all.
#2
I'm not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. This is based on my own personal feeble understanding of US IP laws, and is offered for your amusement only.
A company cannot copyright an idea; they can only copyright the expression of that idea.
So, making games where the main character is a thief, who sneaks around guards and steals for a living cannot be protected as intellectual property. What can be protected is the entire Thief game: the setting, the characters, the story, the names of places in the game, the graphics, and, to a certain extent, the look and feel of the gameplay.
Merely being 'similar' to another game is not infringement. If your game copied major portions of the plot, setting, and gameplay from Thief, or something really distinctive like the use of different types of arrows to solve puzzles, you might get yourself in trouble.
If you actually used source code or graphics directly from Thief, then you are definitely violating their copyright on those items.
This is probably obvious, but you definitely should not make any reference to Thief in your advertising or promotion of the game, because that could be perceived as an attempt to link your product to theirs. Using a protected trademark to sell your product will definitely get you in trouble.
Hope this helps. Here are a couple links for more and probably better info:
US Patent office
[url]
http://www.uspto.gov/
[/url]
Nolo press, a great source for do it yourself law
http://www.nolo.com/
03/17/2001 (6:29 pm)
I'm not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. This is based on my own personal feeble understanding of US IP laws, and is offered for your amusement only.
A company cannot copyright an idea; they can only copyright the expression of that idea.
So, making games where the main character is a thief, who sneaks around guards and steals for a living cannot be protected as intellectual property. What can be protected is the entire Thief game: the setting, the characters, the story, the names of places in the game, the graphics, and, to a certain extent, the look and feel of the gameplay.
Merely being 'similar' to another game is not infringement. If your game copied major portions of the plot, setting, and gameplay from Thief, or something really distinctive like the use of different types of arrows to solve puzzles, you might get yourself in trouble.
If you actually used source code or graphics directly from Thief, then you are definitely violating their copyright on those items.
This is probably obvious, but you definitely should not make any reference to Thief in your advertising or promotion of the game, because that could be perceived as an attempt to link your product to theirs. Using a protected trademark to sell your product will definitely get you in trouble.
Hope this helps. Here are a couple links for more and probably better info:
US Patent office
[url]
http://www.uspto.gov/
[/url]
Nolo press, a great source for do it yourself law
http://www.nolo.com/
#4
03/22/2001 (8:52 pm)
Just a tip, many legal articles exist on both Gamasutra.com and Gamedev.net concerning the legalities of making a game, including intellectual property and such.
#5
Basically, this means that if you do a game which involves a hardware gun, you cannot have a button on it which uncovers you so you can aim..
I cant understand how they can copyright that.
Ahh well.
Phil.
03/23/2001 (6:10 am)
One thing I heard recently.. apparently some company (cant remember who, but a big jap developer like capcom or konami) has copyrighted the idea that you start off in cover and have to press a button on the weapon to come out (this is for hardware gun device for PS1).Basically, this means that if you do a game which involves a hardware gun, you cannot have a button on it which uncovers you so you can aim..
I cant understand how they can copyright that.
Ahh well.
Phil.
Torque Owner Jeff Tunnell
As always, I would encourage you to be as original as possible. Saying you are doing a game like Thief, only open ended does not sound too original.
Jeff Tunnell GG