I''m interested in learning about copyrighting game material, and more specifically Game Names. What is the process that I would go through to copyright the name of my game (e.g. "billy''s great adventure"), and how do I protect such an assest? Are there other things I should consider copyrighting, trademarking, etc, that pertain to my game? How does this whole process work? Thanks for any help you can provide.

well if you go to this <a href="http://www.gamedev.net/reference/business/features/legalissues2/">Legal article</a> it will alot of your questions.

Have fun

--Alpha

You don't copyright names, you trademark them. Just put the little trademark symbol and you have an unregistered trademark, which is legal but very hard to defend. The same is true for unregistered copyrights.

EDIT: Copyrights copy the actual material.

[edited by - cowsarenotevil on September 3, 2003 7:57:20 PM]

Go here http://www.obscure.co.uk/faq.shtml and read the 4th and 5th links.

Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions
Game Development & Design consultant

Muchas gracias Amegos.

I looked through all the article areas EXCEPT the most obvious one, legal.

And who here has purchased a U.S. trademark?

Go here, http://www.uspto.gov/main/trademarks.htm, and the filing fee for a
Class 9 software program is $335.00? I guess it looks like a good deal for 10 years.

I don''t see any obvious strings or catches? Any ''hidden'' fees after registering it?
Like maintenance fees, or something else?

I guess the question you have to ask yourself, are you going to see any profit from this
game after 10 years? How about after 5 years? Will you even remember it after one year?
Will you have a sequel to "billy''s great adventure"? billy''s great adventure III?

How long of a lifespan does your game have? Why even trademark something that will
only have a short lifespan, like a shareware game?

quote: Original post by Afaik
Class 9 software program is $335.00? I guess it looks like a good deal for 10 years.

I don''t see any obvious strings or catches? Any ''hidden'' fees after registering it?
Like maintenance fees, or something else?

Yes, hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees (seriously). There is no point in registering a trademark if you can''t afford to take legal action to defend it. That requires a specialised IP lawyer and taking someone to court will run up huge legal bills.

You don''t need to register a trademark, they just exist. If someone uses your trademark (by accident) send them a letter and they will likely stop. If they don''t then having a registered trademark (as opposed to an unregistered one) wont help unless you can afford to take legal action to enforce it.



Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions
Game Development & Design consultant