I thought about building objects from Lego and then photographing them to get sprites for a game. Does anyone know if this is legal, or does it infringe copyright? There would be no Lego branding visible.

If you want a good answer to that question: "consult a lawyer"
.. i mean, seriously, you're asking programmers for legal advice!?

I just wondered if anyone knew of any instances where something like this had been done.

sorry for being harsh, but anything anyone tells you here would be anecdotal at best.. it might just give you a false sense of security.

I would think you could proceed with that idea. But I'm not a lawyer, and you should not proceed based solely on my advice. You have to have a lawyer if you're going to go into business making games.

Quote: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Group
Since the expiration of the last standing Lego patent in 1988, a number of companies have produced interlocking bricks that are similar to Lego bricks. The toy company Tyco Toys produced such bricks for a time; other competitors include Mega Bloks and Coko. These competitor products are typically compatible with Lego bricks, and are marketed at a lower cost than Lego sets.

One such competitor is Coko, manufactured by Chinese company Tianjin Coko Toy Co., Ltd. In 2002, Lego Group Swiss subsidiary Interlego AG sued the company for copyright infringement. A trial court found many Coko bricks to be infringing; Coko was ordered to cease manufacture of the infringing bricks, publish a formal apology in the Beijing Daily, and pay a small fee in damages to Interlego. On appeal, the Beijing High People's Court upheld the trial court's ruling [1].

In 2003 Lego Group won a lawsuit in Norway against the marketing group Biltema for its sale of Coko products, on the grounds that the company used product confusion for marketing purposes.[2]

Also in 2003, a large shipment of Lego-like products marketed under the name "Enlighten" was seized by Finland customs authorities. The packaging of the Enlighten products was similar to official Lego packaging. Their Chinese manufacturer failed to appear in court, and thus Lego won a default action ordering the destruction of the shipment. Lego Group footed the bill for the disposal of the 54,000 sets, citing a desire to avoid brand confusion and protect consumers from potentially inferior products.[3]

Lego Group has attempted to trademark the "Lego Indicia", the studded appearance of the Lego brick, hoping to stop production of Mega Bloks. On May 24, 2002, the Federal Court of Canada dismissed the case, asserting the design is functional and therefore ineligible for trademark protection [4]. The Lego Group's appeal was dismissed by the Federal Court of Appeal on July 14, 2003 [5]. In October 2005, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that "Trademark law should not be used to perpetuate monopoly rights enjoyed under now-expired patents." and held that Mega Bloks can continue to manufacture their bricks.

Having read this excerpt from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Group I would think you're in the clear as far as copyright and certainly in the clear patent wise since it expired in 1988, however that is not to say they cannot sue you and "try" to win a case.

With that said, as the others have stated, consult a lawyer.

The real question is are you using their intellectual property to make money out of it or not?

If you create a game like LEGO Star Wars then obviously you're using their brand for your own benefit, so you'll need an agreement with them (quite likely meaning you'll have to pay). If instead you're just using the square bricks and the real work is in the art you create out of it, then there's absolutely no need to worry. You could have just as easily used crayons or colorful pebbles...

Of course the grey area is when you're combining their intellectual property with yours. Say for instance you create a nice house, using the bricks but also some of the complex shapes with maybe some nice stickers on them. In this case the creation is partially yours and partially theirs.

Then you still have two choices: Do nothing, and just publish your game and see whether LEGO objects, or actually regards it as good advertisement. A dispute, if it ever comes to that, can still be settled later. Note that companies don't instantly sue anyone unless they can actually win something by doing so. If your game is small scale, it's just not worth the negative PR for them. They even actively encourage people to photograph their creations, although that's mostly for personal use and not commercial use. The second option is to contact them early. This is best when you're planning on using LEGO to save yourself the extra work. But it may result in signing an agreement that ends up costing you a lot of money, before knowing exactly how many copies of the game you'll sell. So you have to weigh the risk of getting sued later against the risk of paying too much up-front.

Anyway, I'm not a lawyer either but I really believe that putting yourself in the position of the LEGO company and using some common sense will quickly answer your question.

Does your plan require you to use Lego bricks?

Can you use one of their competitor's bricks?

Can you use any other colored or painted blocks?

Can your project survive without the little interlocking bricks, instead using less encumbered wooden building blocks?

The farther you can move away from their IP the better off you will be.




If you are even considering anything along the lines of the recent LEGO-themed games, you absolutely must get lawyers (plural) involved who know toys, games, trademark, and business law.

Frob is closest to the mark on this one. The most plausible corners LEGO would attack from would be trademark, trade dress, and unfair competition. This is particularly the case in light of the games Frob mentioned. Also consider that Lego may not be the only player you need to consider-- EA and Warner Brothers Interactive both have claims to LEGO video games in both copyright (the products themselves) and trademark (by license).

At least part of the answer you're looking for will invariably come down to things you plan on doing that you won't want to disclose on a public forum (e.g., specific details about your game, how you plan on using the sprites, what kinds of models you plan on using, etc.). For that reason alone you'd be better off consulting an attorney who is, as an occupational hazard, required to keep that information confidential. ;)

It greatly depends on what you are using it for. I used lego cad to make a silly lego zombie game just for cheeze's sake. I'm not sure if lego cad actually shows the logos on the block ends like true legos (don't remember) so that might be an answer. But I can't guarentee that lego cad figures would not also infringe copyright.

Depending on how realistic the game is, though, legos are not that complex. You could do similar things as pixel art and not have to worry about copyright.