Protect Game Title's?

#1 Copyright only affects the content of the game. Trademarks, however, affect the title and its uses.

#2 This is crazy, so many legalities.

Let me ask a generic question.

All you game creators out there when you are designing a game. What steps do you take to make sure everything is legal?

#3 1. Create own content.
2. If licensing content, make sure that the content is original or falls under a license which allows use and distribution in your project.
3. When licensing and engine, read and understand all licensing concerns. For example, do not mix GPL Quake 3 with Torque to add in bezier patches. It crosses legal licensing lines.
4. check the copyright and trademark laws for any country you want to distribute to. Copyright laws are pretty straightforward, as are trademark laws. Patents can be hairy, though.

There are a million other things, but if you read your EULAs and research your content providers, your life will be much easier. Also look at copyright laws in your country/state/province/etc.

#4 Based on my reading it seems that a patent can not exist on any game content game "content". It seems that a patent would exist on physical things like a game system or media for that system.

Trademarks are used to secure exact names and pictures. Such as your game name and logos. Also the graphics in your game could be trademarked if you wanted to go that far.

Copyrights protect the creative aspect of the game such as story line and music.

If anyone would like to chime in and tell me if I am getting it or tell me I am still confused, feel free.

Thank you.

#5 Software patents exist and are an extremely gray area in terms of what you can and cannot patent. Algorithms and file formats and methodologies have been patented, for example. Look at licensing the MP3 format to use. Then you'll know why so many engines use OGG (aside from being a better quality format).

#6 I try to avoid including other sources in my game. I've not had to add anything to the engine that I didn't write myself.

When I contract art and music, I'm going to insist on original works only. If the contractee wants to use licensed works I will have an indemnity clause. It basically states that the contractee is responsible for obtaining the necessary rights to the work they are giving me.

#7 That's a great idea, however, you should make sure to read publisher agreements as well so as to not lock your own responsibility into it when playing with the big dogs.

#8 An indemnification clause will generally not help you if an artist contributes an infringing piece of work to your project. You're generally going to have an indemnification clause in a contract between the artist and you. This means that if a third-party finds out that you are using his/her copyrighted work, they are going to sue you, not the artist, for infringment.

If you are found to infringe, then the best you can do is to sue the artist for reimbursement of any damages (or potentially implead the artist). There's a couple problems here. First, if you cannot find the artist, you are still going to be held liable. Second, if the artist does not have enough to reimburse you, then you're going to have to cover any damages (the artist may just declare bankrupcty as well).

Thus, you're going to have to go through a lot of litigation and you're going to need an attorney.

Second, you cannot copyright an "idea" which means that your story may NOT be protected under the copyright act (any words are protected, but the concept or sum of the words MAY not be). This is especially true if you use fairly generic structures and common themes.

Third, you can patent various designs and methods which are not physical in nature. A business method patent is a good example.

If you get to the point where you have an actual working game that you want to release commercially, I would contact an attorney. Honestly.

I am an attorney but this post is meant as general advice, not legal advice. I am not attempting to create an attorney-client relationship. Legal questions or advice should be directed towards an intellectual property attorney.

#9 I have had some experience with patents that may or may not be useful to those considering applying for one. This applies to US patents.

The first step I took was to file for a provisional patent. This is a "secret" patent that is valid for one year, but is not shown to the public. In other words, you will not find it on the us patent office web site or a google patent search. The benefit of this is three fold: (1) its inexpensive at around $100 (2) buys time for a year until you decide whether you need to spend the money for a full patent (3) good to show potential investors.

When you apply for the full patent a year later, the patent start date is that of the original provisional patent. Thus, if someone else claims to have created something similar, they would have to show evidence that is was created before you submitted your application. In other words, they could not look at your idea and steal it after you've submitted the patent. Assuming your idea is actually patentable of course.

If you realize a year later that your idea is not worth it, you can abandone the patent process and lose only $100. Or you can even submit another provisional patent if you need more time to decide. However, submitting the new patent means you lose the patent start date from a year ago and start today. But, at least your idea is still a secret and has not been made public (unless you have made it public by some other means).

#10 I am A developer of a game for marble play. I have a name for the game. We are ready to produce a limited preview of the Game that is Autographed by the artists involved. Do I need a copyright, trade mark, what do i need to sell my game NOW!

#11 That last post was a Question...OOPS

#12 Oh, It is a marble -Card game. Do I need to do something first, or can I just start selling the produced cards?

#13 That's great information Harishnp :)

#14 That's why you hire lawyers to answer these questions. If you get on the internet and go to public forums expecting to get an answer for stuff like this your comapny is in trouble already.