Is it legal to name a game after a single English word, if there are various other games (mostly flash games) already with the same name? It's not a phrase or anything made up, but just one word that can be found in any dictionary.

Although I'm no lawyer, you should be ok unless there is a trademark on the name.

There are many cases of duplicated names. One that always comes to mind for me is the movie (ummm movies) called "Slipstream". The first was a Mark Hamill Sci-Fi movie made in 1989 and the other was a movie in 2007 about some screenwriter who can't tell the difference between real life and his fantasy world.

If the name doesn't have a trademark, and it's a little online Flash game like you say, you will be fine.

John

Quote: Original post by borngamer
Although I'm no lawyer, you should be ok unless there is a trademark on the name.

Trademark protection is automatic and does not require registration.

If I were to right now publish some software called "Frob's DocuFestiPrint", the mark would have instant and automatic trademark protections.

Quote: Original post by Farrenfox
Is it legal to name a game after a single English word, if there are various other games (mostly flash games) already with the same name? It's not a phrase or anything made up, but just one word that can be found in any dictionary.

It is possible, but not recommended.

Trademark law is complicated. You need a good lawyer to navigate it safely.

When a business uses a name in trade, they are granted some protections. The strength of the protection depends on many factors. The biggest factors are the distinctiveness of the mark, secondary meaning or public recognition of the mark, and the field or industry the mark is used.

The most generic marks are generally invalid for trademark. Calling your email program "EMail" gives you practically no protection. Descriptive names (e.g. "Park & Fly") are weak marks and are difficult to protect, and are good names for products with names you don't care to protect. A generic arbitrary mark (e.g.: "Apple", "Sun", "Word", "Visa") begins life as a very weak mark, but as it acquires secondary meaning it becomes a stronger trademark. Each one of those particular marks have seen many lawsuits before getting the protections they have today. The strongest type of trademarks are 'fanciful' marks with no prior meaning, such as "iPod", "MetroWerks" and "DirectX".

Many countries and states require the trademark to be registered before you can sue or collect damages in court.

I would strongly suggest you use either a made-up distinctive name, or a strongly descriptive name for your game.