Well I'm probably about 75% done with a game engine I've been working on for a while and I made a simple 3D FPS with it, so I believe it's about time I start looking it to patenting it. I would also like rights to the name and trade marks. Also can I sell games online under my name without needing to register a company?

You can register a trademark if you like, but in order for something to be patentable it must be unique and inventive (well... in theory anyway).

I suspect you are meaning to ask about copyrights... the US Copyright Office has information for you.

And if you are going to sell something online, you are legally required to report income in one form or another. Whether you start a company or not depends on what your motivations are and wha rights/protections you require.

These questions are all separate, of course, from the question of whether you are developing a product that anyone will want to pay for or whether your time would be better spent working on a game rather than an engine... that's your concern, but you will probably get responses to that point as well. :-)

What exactly would you patent about the game engine? I ask cause you'll need to answer it in order to get a patent. There is some definite erosion in software patentability after a recent series of rulings. The Bilski decision from the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has pretty much said pure software patents that are neither tied to a specific machine nor change something into a different state are not patentable. Patent law is a specialized are of law, you'll need to talk to a patent attorney.


I am not aware of any requirement that says you have to register as a company in order to sell something, as long you pay taxes etc.

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Original post by smitty1276 You can register a trademark if you like, but in order for something to be patentable it must be unique and inventive (well... in theory anyway). I suspect you are meaning to ask about copyrights... the US Copyright Office has information for you. And if you are going to sell something online, you are legally required to report income in one form or another. Whether you start a company or not depends on what your motivations are and wha rights/protections you require. These questions are all separate, of course, from the question of whether you are developing a product that anyone will want to pay for or whether your time would be better spent working on a game rather than an engine... that's your concern, but you will probably get responses to that point as well. :-)

Oh I didn't know there was a difference, well that explains why the information I found on Google was so cryptic.

Also this has nothing to do with anyone wanting to buy the engine.

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Original post by CodaKiller Oh I didn't know there was a difference, well that explains why the information I found on Google was so cryptic. Also this has nothing to do with anyone wanting to buy the engine.

Dont worry. From what I hear, your congress, senate, supreme court and patent office dont know the difference either.

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Original post by prh99 What exactly would you patent about the game engine? I ask cause you'll need to answer it in order to get a patent. There is some definite erosion in software patentability after a recent series of rulings. The Bilski decision from the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has pretty much said pure software patents that are neither tied to a specific machine nor change something into a different state are not patentable. Patent law is a specialized are of law, you'll need to talk to a patent attorney. I am not aware of any requirement that says you have register a company in order to sell something, as long you pay taxes etc.

I just want to prevent the unauthorized replication and distribution of my software, though of course I know unless I do something spectacular with it no one will want to but thats beside the point.

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Original post by CodaKiller I just want to prevent the unauthorized replication and distribution of my software, though of course I know unless I do something spectacular with it no one will want to but thats beside the point.

You automatically have those rights the moment you start typing in code. Protections are automatic, and all the countries around the globe that matter will respect them.

Just because you have the rights doesn't mean you can easily enforce them --- look at all the piracy in the world.

If you want to enforce those rights in the courts you will need to pay various governmental fees, have a lawyer, take them to court, win, and enforce the judgment. But since you probably aren't planning on going through this very expensive process, you won't need to pay anything.

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• Before an infringement suit may be filed in court, registration is necessary for works of U. S. origin.

OK so does that mean I can register after someone has infringed on my rights so that I can take them to court or does that mean I would have needed to been registered at the time the infringement took place?

Is this a joke?

Seriously, if you have invested the amount of time it would take to create a game engine thats worth worrying this much about, I would hope you would invest more than 5 seconds researching about how to go about protecting it, maybe going to the extent of looking up the definition of copyright, patent, and IP..maybe?

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Original post by CodaKiller Quote: • Before an infringement suit may be filed in court, registration is necessary for works of U. S. origin. OK so does that mean I can register after someone has infringed on my rights so that I can take them to court or does that mean I would have needed to been registered at the time the infringement took place?

As far as copyright goes, as frob said your rights are automatic and last till some time after your death (varies from a country to another). So you dont need to do anything to prevent people from stealing your code.

Registering a trademark (for example, the name of your engine), is different. Trademarks reserve your right to use that name for commercial purposes, so it goes to whoever register it first, however there is a fee $.

Frankly I wouldnt bother about any of this until you are ready to start selling something. Im sure your work is something to be proud of but there are way too many excellent, free, open-source engines out there for people to bother stealing it.