Practical IP Law for Indie Developers 301: Plain Scary Edition

In this 2018 GDC session, lawyer Christopher Reid gives indie developers a practical understanding of copyright, trademarks, and other intellectual property relevant to game development, and explains how these types of IP work, why indies should care, how they can protect themselves, and what practical tools they have when there's a dispute. This talk helps developers understand copyright infringement, fair use, protecting game and company names, let's plays, and more.

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[chrisreidlaw]

Post-conference correction to one of my Q&A answers: Trademarks registered in the supplemental register ARE entitled to use the ® symbol. Sorry about the error folks!

[MarcusBuer]

6 years later and it is still one of the best talks about IP law.
One point I think it missed is that Fair use is an American doctrine, and as laws are different on every country, some countries don't have a doctrine similar to fair use. In Brazil, as an example, fair use only applies for journalistic or educational purposes, it can't be used for general content, yet when Brazilians try to understand fair use they often are misled by Youtube (main culprit, uses the USA centric guidelines even for other countries, just translated to local language) telling them it is ok, when it is often not ok.

[RJMc]

Excellent talk. Easily the clearest explanation of these kinds of laws that I've ever heard.

[SC]

Game devs, an important thing - when it comes to copyright, PICK YOUR BATTLES. Going on a pissy offended artist crusade brought on by jokes, parodies, and negative reviews will only damage you and your work further. Remember Tommy Wiseau's war with the Nostalgia Critic.

[MidoriMushrooms]

oh my god this guy is a riot, this is exactly my type of humor. Also he's basically on-point so time to link this around.

[ZoidbergForPresident]

Would be interested for the same kind of things but for Europe (and even elsewhere).

[evanhoffman]

This channel deserves more recognition.

[Rexodiak]

very informative, but I can't help but feel sad when I hear the guy say "This is helpful, because it allows us to sue people for a lot of money" even if it's just meant to be used as a tool to warn people.

It shouldn't be possible for devs to put a patent on something like the minigames that used to appear during loading screens, limiting other's creativity for fear of people without it.

[Native_Creation]

Great talk, liked the clarification of some of those myths on fair use.

[mrphu.]

Great super informative talk with a beautiful presentation.. easy to understand and follow

[glassbeaver]

Very informative, one of the best talks on game IP. Thank you so much!

[jakeleno]

First off thanks for giving a great talk, lots of relevant advice put in a way that is easy to understand. I have one question for you: If I use works in the public domain or with a CC0 license (sound effects, images, 3d materials) and alter them (give a 3d model I've created a CC0 material, alter a sound effect in audacity) can I claim copyright on the altered work or does it stay in the public domain?

[geoffrey]

Thanks for your talk! So useful for a newbie like me. You explain very well complex thing!

[StarContract]

Interesting. Can you patent mathematical equations / algorithms? For example for compression or encryption? I heard Hello Games almost got into trouble for admitting to use an algorithm for procedurally generating NMS creatures, designed by some professor in Belgium or whatever.

[LunarBulletDev]

2022: Practical Law for Indie Developers 401: Absolute Nightmare Edition

[KB-zqny]

@Chris Reid Law,

How safe are the indie game companies that develop JRPG monster catchers that are similar to Pokemon, like Nexomon or Micromon, in terms of world exploration and specific game mechanics? I wanted to make one of these kinds of games, because they seem like fun, but I may be a little bit concerned about later being charged with infringement, due to the "too similar" gray area. I know you said that game mechanics can't be copyrighted, but are there any other pitfalls I'm not looking at here, or should this be okay as long as I use different graphics, music, story, and slightly different gimmicks?

[barax]

What if i own a logo
then i wanted to use the same logo but with different coloring or make it stretched or edited little bit, do i have to register the new one? even tho i may use both logos.

[PixelProphecy]

Woohoo! At long last the "Plain Scary Edition!"

[thefebo]

and what is about the tetris mechanic?

[phlegios]

This reminds of that buffoon, what was her name Brenda Grose? The one who tried to sue other developers for using a fucking frying pan.
BTW, really interesting topic. Always wanted to find out more about copyright, trademark, and these little symbols that represent all those rules and regulations (law in general).