Im going to work on an rts real soon. Im pretty sure that gun names are copywritten and thats why games have weird names for guns, but what about military tanks/aircraft? No opinions, only facts please.

Hello DP,

I'll only say this. I produced a flying game last summer, and we decided to name the planes only by their military designations (F/A-18, F-22, etc.) and not their nicknames. We didn't use names like "Tomcat," etc. We also made sure the aircraft didn't resemble the originals 100%. We did this to reduce the legal risk, at the advice of lawyers and past cases brought by airplane manufacturers against model kit makers and game makers. Fact.

Good luck,
Tom

[Edited by - tsloper on April 28, 2006 3:08:42 PM]

Fact 1: Names are not protected by copyrights. They are protected by trademarks. They have trademark protection even if they are not registered with the USPTO or other international agencies.

Fact 2: The US Armed Forces are very protective of their logos and designs.

Unverified: I have heard stories of legal letters to stop using Navy names and insignia.

Well I looked through some RTS games (command and conquer generals and act of war). Act of war uses model names "uh 60q medevac, m2a3 bradley". And I look at command and conquer and they only use names like "raptor, commanche, chinook". I'm going to try to email some ppl and hopefully get an answer.

DP apparently didn't like the advice he's gotten so far and argued:

>Well I looked through some RTS games (command and conquer generals and act of war). Act of war uses model names "uh 60q medevac, m2a3 bradley". And I look at command and conquer and they only use names like "raptor, commanche, chinook".

Yes, in other words, you're seeing conflicting precedence. And you're surprised?? (^_^)

>I'm going to try to email some ppl and hopefully get an answer.

You're just going to continue getting conflicting answers, if the "ppl" you email aren't lawyers.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1332614/posts
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_3401484/printable.htm

[Edited by - tsloper on April 28, 2006 3:28:41 PM]

As for the "names" of the aircraft like Tomcat or Hornet. If anyone "owned" that information it might be the company that designed and built the aircraft but since the names are NATO designations I don't know if they are protected or not.

Heh, can you imagine one nation sueing another for using copyrighted names on military briefs, lol. "Stop the war, we have infringement!"

Either way, it would be interesting to know.

I'm not saying I dont like it, I'm just confused :). Maybe because act of war was made in france ;)

Quote:

Original post by dpadam450 Well I looked through some RTS games (command and conquer generals and act of war). Act of war uses model names "uh 60q medevac, m2a3 bradley". And I look at command and conquer and they only use names like "raptor, commanche, chinook". I'm going to try to email some ppl and hopefully get an answer.

Maybe they tracked down the company or government department that owned the rights and obtained their permission to use the names.

I look at it this way. Books use the legit names (Tom Clancy for example), so why cannot games? I'm by no means a lawyer but as long as you're not painting their product in a negative light you should be fine? Bah.

DP wrote:

>I'm not saying I dont like it, I'm just confused

You were expecting a simple clear answer to your question. Sorry, there isn't one. Try this instead. Which way do you want to go, the safe way that's a little less cool and authentic? Or the cool and authentic way, and risk getting sued?

Mike wrote:

>Books use the legit names (Tom Clancy for example), so why cannot games?

Because books aren't also using 3D images of the weaponry in question (rather than designing something original). Because nobody sues authors over the same kind of stuff they sue game makers, toy makers, and movie makers over. You're expecting a simple clear answer to this question? Sorry, there isn't one.