OK, so I got my thread locked. Because someone thought that I was violating an IP, he said I needed to "Acquire it". Well here's the thing, Pitch is different from Acquisition, so the rule should be.
"Discussion of IPs is allowed as long as it's been Acquired AND/OR It's being pitched, which does not require acquisition.
This really does need to be a rule.
From what I can see in the other discussion, you were preparing slides for TT Games about a product belonging to Universal to be merged with a product owned by The Lego Group.
From a business perspective that's a non-starter. You don't own either product, nor does TT Games. Lego is the core of The Lego Group, and Fast and The Furious is one of Universal's largest franchises. The best thing you can hope for is that they'll completely ignore your idea, and hope neither organization will send their legal teams after you. Creating and submitting a pitch on it is basically trying to sell something you don't own.
If you were to submit a pitch on it, you would need to submit the pitch to Lego or to Universal. You wouldn't present it to TT Games, nor would you present it here.
Since TT Games was acquired by Warner Brothers, a partnership there would be difficult, unless it comes with a few million dollars to make it easier on them. Both the proposal and the softening-up money would need to come from one of the two major companies having their products merged.
It is seldom seen publicly, but the major companies really do send out legal demands, C&D orders, and takedowns in response to pitches like you created. Usually those takedowns come with gag orders saying they promise not to sue into oblivion on condition of you removing every shred of it from the Internet and never speaking of it again.
6 hours ago, frob said:From what I can see in the other discussion, you were preparing slides for TT Games about a product belonging to Universal to be merged with a product owned by The Lego Group.
From a business perspective that's a non-starter. You don't own either product, nor does TT Games. Lego is the core of The Lego Group, and Fast and The Furious is one of Universal's largest franchises. The best thing you can hope for is that they'll completely ignore your idea, and hope neither organization will send their legal teams after you. Creating and submitting a pitch on it is basically trying to sell something you don't own.
If you were to submit a pitch on it, you would need to submit the pitch to Lego or to Universal. You wouldn't present it to TT Games, nor would you present it here.
Since TT Games was acquired by Warner Brothers, a partnership there would be difficult, unless it comes with a few million dollars to make it easier on them. Both the proposal and the softening-up money would need to come from one of the two major companies having their products merged.
It is seldom seen publicly, but the major companies really do send out legal demands, C&D orders, and takedowns in response to pitches like you created. Usually those takedowns come with gag orders saying they promise not to sue into oblivion on condition of you removing every shred of it from the Internet and never speaking of it again.
Oh, OK. Alright. So unauthorised pitching is not allowed. Alright then. I would like this thread locked please.
That is how some Q&A sites work, but that's not how discussion forums work. Discussion topics are for people to talk about and discuss, to add new discussion points, new views, new opinions.
I'm surprised that a "pitch" of any sort would be breaking the law.. do you know which law/laws exactly the legal teams would cite in their C&D orders? From what I have read the owners of the original materials would likely not even listen to ideas such to avoid the risk of getting blamed for stealing an idea for a product they already have in production - but I have never heard of pitching ideas getting anyone in to trouble. Different story of course if you pursue that idea and start creating a product without permission of the copyright owners..
I don't have experience in the game industry - but if there are some examples where this has happened that you know of (where ideas or pitches have been squashed with legal threats or actions indicating that the action of creating/discussing the pitch is illegal) it would be interesting to hear
25 minutes ago, EarthBanana said:do you know which law/laws exactly the legal teams would cite in their C&D orders?
A common law mentioned in Cease-and-Desist notices is the Breach-of-Contract; this often includes fines etc. LEGO® for example has the Fair Play agreement. The C&D will include links to these contracts etc. so if the person doesn't stop immediately the court could see it as defying the law.
If the project was big it could be accused of diverting traffic and causing financial harm, this is known as Consumer-Confusion or Deceptive-Conduct.
Harassment could also appear if the project was made to poke fun at the trademark. Most of the time it is just Copyright-Infringement.
If you want to learn more Google "LEGO Cease and Desist" or any company name followed by Cease and Desist. People who revive the notices like to point it out.
