作者：Theodore Jefferson

首先声明，我并不是一名律师。所以不要把这些信息当成法律意见。

我是Heavy Cat Studios的制作人，我拥有许多推销，授权，知识产权管理和制作经验。我们的工作室已经基于各种不同授权条款完成了31款游戏项目的图像，内容编写，声音，音效和动画的开发或联合开发，并且我们也有机会能够通过理念和分布去评估这些项目。

如果你需要的是法律意见，聘请一个知识产权律师并不如想象中的那么昂贵。知识产权律师将为你提供有关版权，商标和专利法的相关建议，以及不同类别的知识产权将如何影响你的游戏项目。甚至只花1个小时与一名优秀的IP律师进行商谈也是非常有价值的，即使你只是为了搞清楚如何更好地管理开发。

不管你相不相信，知识产权的三个主要类别都将影响着你的游戏项目，即使你并未进行足够的考虑或签署任何相关文件。虽然许多程序员持反对意见，但是软件也仍受专利保护。当软件碰上计算机RAM或硬盘驱动器时，它便与版权相挂钩，如果你的游戏拥有自己的名字，它便是商标的候选者。

你不只需要考虑自己的知识产权。你还必须有效地管理自己的游戏项目，从而避免它侵犯到其它公司的专利，商标或知识产权。幸运的是，知识产权法的细节并不会对独立游戏项目造成太大的影响，除非你未经许可使用了别人的源代码或图像。而这在拥有6个开放源供任何人使用的世界中并不适用。

让我们来谈谈一些基本元素。

版权

上一次关于美国知识产权法的全面修改是在1976年。该法律发生了很大的变化，并影响着每一个创造性项目。这同样也带给了作者，程序员，音乐人等等更多的便利。

首先，也是最重要的是，当你所创造的所有内容都“被固定在一个有形的媒介上”时，它们便能受到版权法的保护。这便意味着如果你在磁盘上保存一个文件，在一叠纸上编写内容，刻下声音或在视频上录制舞蹈表演等等都是受到版权保护的。所以现在你的作品中便拥有一定的专有权，如能够创造副本并分发这些副本。

独占权是只有你才能拥有的。如果其他人想要使用这些权利，但却未能获得你的许可，这便算“侵犯”了你的版权。

如今，大多数人都认为如果想获得有效的版权就需要通过政府进行“注册”。这一观点在某些方面上是正确的。只有在任何作品被呈现在某一有形的媒介上时，它才能获得版权（游戏邦注：这便意味着你在Taco Shack优惠券背面写的购物单也是受到版权保护的）。但是如果你想要诉诸法律并获得赔偿，你就需要去注册相关版权。

版权注册是个非常简单的过程。只需要少量费用，你便可以以美国国会图书馆所要求的形式并附带两份作品副本进行提交。随后美国国会图书馆将向你发放相关证书。如此你便拥有了注册版权。之后你就可以进行相关诉讼并要求赔偿了，包括向那些侵犯了你的注册版权的人要求法定损害赔偿。

但如果你是与其他三位好朋友共同致力于一款游戏中又是怎样的情况？到底谁拥有版权？

如果你这么做，你可以允许其他人或公司基于版权法去使用你的专有权。这便是所谓的“授权”。在大多数情况下，当3个人（也包括女孩和女人，她们也可以制作游戏）共同致力于一款游戏时，他们便默许其他人在开发过程中使用自己的作品。不过一旦完成了游戏创造，所有权的归属便会非常模糊。

根据法律意义，如果3个人都为某一项目贡献了源代码，那么这三个人便分别拥有该作品某些部分的专有权。任何一个人都能阻止作品的发布并中止项目。这都属于他们权利范围内的事。而避免这一问题的一大方法便是利用版权法中的某一规定去分配单一实体的版权。这便是产业中所谓的“固定”权。

如果你真想认真对待自己的游戏，你便可以花些时间考虑建立一家公司作为游戏版权的“拥有者”。这将帮助你避免许多难题并确保游戏开发的每个负责人都拥有公司的份额而不是一款游戏。我并不打算在本文详细讨论这一点，而IP律师能在这方面带给你有效的帮助。

基于1976年的《版权法》，存在一类被称为“职务作品”的版权。这是版权法中的某一条规定，即如果雇主雇佣了一名员工或承办人去创造一件受版权保护的作品，那么一旦作品诞生了雇主便拥有该作品的所有权。根据法律意义，当某一作品“被固定在一个有形的媒介上”时，版权便属于雇主而非雇员。

“职务作品”只适用于特定类型的作品，所以你最好能够提早完成自己的工作。如果一件作品并不合格，那么即使将其称为“职务作品”也不能保障任何权利。在这种情况下，版权将“回交”给最初的作者（雇员或承包者），而雇主便不具有任何特权。

一旦“职务作品”不能得以落实，作者便可以将自己的版权“转让”给其它组织。从本质上看来这便是出售权利或转移所有权。转让版权是特定法律限制中的条款。通常只能通过书面合同进行落实。

版权和游戏图像

当铅笔碰到纸张时（游戏邦注：笔触碰到手绘板，或鼠标点击Photoshop），图像便受到版权的保护。版权始终保护着美术师们，除非游戏开发者与美术师就所有权所属签订了相关协议。

那些清楚版权法的美术师们常常会通过授权让开发者去使用自己的作品。这便是我们在Heavy Cat Studios通过分销公司Palace in the Sky Productions所提供的。对于开发者来说最廉价的选择便是基于商业授权的委任制作的图像。他们可以在自己的游戏项目中使用这些图像，并基于零售方式贩卖游戏。而我们的工作室仍保留着版权。

有些开发者想要获得这些作品的完整的权利。对于这样的客户，我们会收取额外的费用而转让相关版权。

如果你是一名游戏开发者，你就必须在使用任何第三方（特别是工作室）提供的作品前认识到这点。你需要准备一份书面协定（这时候最好请求IP律师的协助）并确保美术师或工作室能在开始工作前签下这份协定。

口头协议远远不够。不管你们事先做了何种协议，你的美术师都拥有自己创造的图像的版权，除非这些协议是基于书面形式，并且是关于你能够行使这些权利。这点非常重要。如果你不能保证游戏中图像的相关权利，你的整个项目便有可能受到牵连。

当你开始保障自己的权利时，你也必须清楚版权法会随着你所运行的世界发生改变。总体来说，如果你想在网络上使用任何作品，你就需要获得这些作品在全世界范围内的使用权，因为国家界限并不能阻止一件作品被人从一个地区传递到其它地区。版权授权可以基于权力持有者的不同选择进行划分。这便意味着他们可以说“你可以复制我的作品，但却不能在加拿大这么做。”所以你需要确保能够获得某一作品在任何计划区域的使用权。

国际版权法是受到名为“伯恩公约”条款的支配。本篇文章并不会详细谈论该条款，但是我们必须清楚，任何签署了该条款的国家都将有效地保护版权持有者。为了避免在其它国家惹上麻烦，你就需要在所有的这些区域中保障自己的权利。当然，最简单的方法便是获得游戏中所使用的任何作品的全世界使用权。

大部分情况下，“职务作品”规则也适用于“音像作品。”再一次，你也需要咨询IP律师的意见。如果一件作品并未拥有使用资格，你就需要想办法让美术师转让自己的专有权。

商标

商标是指代表你们公司或市场上的产品的单词，图标或其它可视化表现形式。最显著的商标代表便是游戏logo和公司logo。

主要有两种类型的商标。一种是“习惯法”商标。主要用于保护商业中的标识，但未经过注册。主要表现为标识旁边的“TM”标记。这便意味着该单词，图表或可视化表现形式是一种商标，商标保护着该标识，当该标识却未曾注册过。

注册商标是指在美国政府中登记备案了，并带有“?”标记。只有注册过的商标能够使用注册商标标识。

申请商标注册需要专业律师的协助。如果你没有任何专业知识，只是一味地尝试自己搞定这一工作，那最终只会耗时耗钱，并且不能保证绝对的成功。专利和商标局经常会拒绝一些带有细微错误或漏洞的申请。所以你最好能够找专业的人帮助。

游戏图像中的商标

我们知道logo是最佳商标代表。但是在有些情况下，你的角色图像也能够取得商标资格。最典型的商标角色便是米老鼠。我们总是可以通过“米老鼠的耳朵”和角色本身识别出迪士尼，所以该角色有资格受到版权和商标法的保护。

商标法是用于避免消费者混淆不同的公司。这能够阻止一家公司利用其它公司的信誉和声望去销售自己的产品。

当你为自己的游戏logo申请了商标时，如果其他开发者使用了与你们的logo相似的团，你便有权去阻止他们，因为这会混淆你的消费者，导致他们以为自己面对的是你们的作品。你不希望看到这种情况，所以商标法让你能够通过公众的错误判断而阻止对方。

尽管你正在保障自己的权利，但同时你也要考虑为游戏的logo或标志性角色注册商标。这是在一个充满竞争性的市场中保护自己作品的质量和声誉的有效方式。

专利

你可能会认为，我将想办法在游戏中使用专利法，但最终你会惊讶地发现，我们可以非常轻松地解决专利问题。

对于大多数项目而言，版权就具有足够的保护性。阻止第三方窃取你的游戏，为其加上新logo并进行销售都是版权法中的关键保护措施。

但版权只能保护你的特有表达形式。而专利法能够保护这种表达形式中的方法或过程。这比版权法更加抽象。

许多程序员都对软件专利理念持反对态度。有时候，我们会认为软件的利用只存在一种方式，如果它受到专利的保护，这便意味着任何没有专利的程序员必须侵犯别人的权利才能编写程序，即使他们的创作并未侵犯到其他程序员的版权。

专利和游戏图像

撇开软件是否应该受到专利保护不说，我们只需要注意计算机游戏和一般游戏也受到了专利法的保护。例如桌面游戏《Mouse Trap》便是一种专利，即放下笼子盖住老鼠的塑料鲁贝戈德堡机便是一种基于商业用途的可行机制。

《Mouse Trap》向我们展示了知识产权法在用于游戏项目时的广泛延伸范围。理论上来看，多彩的塑料陷阱机制应该受到知识产权三个主要类别的保护：组件本身将作为独特的雕塑品受到版权保护。整个陷阱机制将被当成一个单独的雕塑而区别于其它组件。整个机制还将成为该公司推广游戏的独特标志，从而受到商标的保护，因为这是一种带有商业目的的可行机制，所以它也受到了专利的保护。

对于一款游戏来说它将具有多种权利，而基于Ideal Toy Company游戏的标志性本质，这种保护程度应该是合理的。它会采取各种方法确保游戏的有效运行，所以游戏的作者就必须想办法去保护自己的创作。

与其它知识产权一样，专利也可以授权或转让。如果你拥有一项专利，你便拥有一系列专有权，就像版权和商标拥有者那样。但是专利的期限较短。这同样也需要来自专业律师的帮助。专利对技术性和细节具有较高的要求。

对于大多数游戏开发者而言，专利并不会成为他们的主要关注对象，除非有人宣称你侵犯了他们的专利。从技术角度来看，绝大多数游戏软件都非常相似，所以要被归为专利申请范围还有很长的一条路要走。

免费软件

21世纪任何有关知识产权的讨论都不完整，因为并未涵盖免费软件和开放源软件领域。

我们都知道免费软件和开放源软件并不属于“不受版权保护”的作品。这些作品仍然受到版权的保护。实际上，这些作品中的版权是指给予作者法律特权去使用授权，如GNU通用公共许可证。

唯一不受版权法保护的作品是那些作者自愿放在公共领域的内容。公用软件便是免费使用的。

而公共授权作品，如那些基于GNU通用公共许可证的作品则是带有永久性授权且受到版权保护的软件。授权将保证你能够在特定条件下稳定且永久地使用版权拥有者的特定权利。并且你也需要记住这种许可也能够被取消，而如果许可被取消了，你的使用权也同样会被取消。知识共享中的作品亦是如此。

很多时候你都可以通过公共授权资源收集到你的游戏项目的许多内容，并使用一些商业作品进行补充。这不仅能够有效地降低成本，同时还能保证最后的质量。

免费图像

市场上有许许多多图像服务。出于游戏目的，这些资源会因为质量或技术限制等原因被选择或忽视。图像是主观的。我们主要是通过风格和实用性对其进行评估，由众多来源拼凑起来的图像通常就会更接近这些源图像。

但是也有些组合自多种来源的图像非常突出且吸引人。我们在Heavy Cat Studios的许多项目便使用了像素图像，而我们的Indie Game Art Store也为RPG和横向卷轴游戏提供了像素图像服务。因为其本身的风格，将像素图像组装在一起也比较能够得到谅解。相反地，两种不同风格的插图也许就不能具有如此吸引力了。

结论

关于独立游戏开发的知识产权，你需要注意一些细节内容，并确保相关内容受到保护。“蜘蛛侠”便是未能有效做到这点的典例。

几十年来，因为十家不同公司都拥有各种权利去创造“蜘蛛侠”电影，从而导致Marvel的专有权失去了威信。因为这些被授权商关于如何创造电影未能达成一致协议，所以最终出现了这种局面。

如果其中一方撒手开始创造，那么任何一方便可以使用自己手上的授权说“该制作人正在使用我从Marvel手上所获得的专有权去制作电影”并因此阻止制作。他们都有权利说不。相信我，要让好莱坞中的10个人达成一致意见就像在国会上获得全票通过一样困难。这是不可能发生的情况，不管你拥有多少钱。作为Marvel Entertainment的拥有者，Ronald O. Perelman是位名副其实的亿万富翁。但是对于“蜘蛛侠”电影的授权他却束手无策。

历时40多年时间“蜘蛛侠”才逃离了版权混乱的局面。

Marvel最终在20世纪90年代末申请破产。在这种情况下，该公司想办法结束了所有授权。这也是我们会在2000年代初开始看到《蜘蛛侠》电影的主要原因。在该公司摆脱了破产危机后，所有版权和授权又回到他们手上了。因为重新拥有专有权，他们便可以创造自己的电影了。并最终在版权法的保护下创造了一部“衍生作品”。

如果你是一名独立游戏开发者，我给你的建议将非常简单。除非你想要将游戏与版权争夺战纠缠在一起40多年，否则你便需要好好保护并管理自己的专有权。最终你将能够意识到这种保护的重要性并获得更大的成功机会。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Untangling Licensing and Copyright in Game Art

By Theodore Jefferson

First off, I am definitely not a lawyer. So please do not take any of this information as legal advice.

However, I am a producer at Heavy Cat Studios, and I have a fair amount of experience in merchandising, licensing, intellectual property management and production. Our studio has variously developed or co-developed graphics, writing, voices, sound and animation for 31 game projects under a variety of different licensing terms, and we’ve had the opportunity to evaluate those projects from concept to distribution.

If you do need legal advice, it really isn’t as expensive to hire an intellectual property attorney as you might think. An intellectual property attorney will be able to advise you on the specifics of copyright, trademark and patent law and how those different categories of intellectual property can affect your game project. Even an hour-long consultation with a good IP attorney is worth the cost, even if you are only looking for general advice on the best way to manage development.

Believe it or not, all three major categories of intellectual property can and do affect your game project, even if you haven’t given them a great deal of consideration or filed any paperwork yet. Despite the (often correct) protests of many programmers, software can be patented. Software is copyrighted the moment it hits your computer’s RAM or hard drive, and if you have a title for your game, it is a candidate for a trademark.

It is also not just your intellectual property you have to be concerned about. Your game project must be managed so it doesn’t infringe on some other company’s patent, or violate another company’s trademark or copyright either. Fortunately, the finer points of intellectual property law are unlikely to have any major effect on the average indie game project unless you appropriate someone else’s source code or artwork without permission. Even that is completely unnecessary in a world where there are six open source alternatives available for whatever you might need.

So let’s talk some basics.

Copyright

The last major overhaul of copyright law in the United States took place in 1976. That legislation made a number of changes that affect every creative project. It also made a lot of things much easier for authors, programmers and musicians, among others.

First, and most important, everything you create is copyrighted the moment it is “fixed in a tangible medium.” That means if you save a file to disk, write on a pad of paper, record a sound or perform a dance routine on video, that qualifies as a “work” which is now copyrighted. You now have certain exclusive rights in that work, such as the right to make copies and the right to distribute those copies.

An exclusive right is one that only you can exercise. If someone else wants to exercise those rights, you have to give them permission or they are “infringing” on your copyright.

Now most people believe that a copyright must be “registered” with the government in order to be effective. That’s partially true. Copyright vests the moment any copyrightable work is fixed in a tangible medium (yes, that means that grocery list you wrote on the back of a Taco Shack coupon is copyrighted). However, in order for you to file suit and recover damages, that copyright must be registered.

Registering a copyright is an extraordinarily simple process. For a small fee, you file a form with the Librarian of Congress along with two copies of your work. The Library of Congress will then send you a certificate. You now have a registered copyright. If you so choose, you can now file suit and recover damages including statutory damages (essentially a ‘fine’) from anyone who infringes on your registered copyright.

But what if it’s you and three of your best buddies working on a game together? Who owns the copyrights? Well, this is where the fun begins.

If you so choose, you can grant permission for another person or company to exercise your exclusive rights under copyright law. This is called a “license.” In most cases when three people (Yes, girls and women make games too. Look up Roberta Williams if you don’t believe me) are working on a game, they are tacitly granting permission for everyone else to make use of their work during development. But once the game is done, the ownership issue can get very murky legally.

Technically if three people have contributed source code to a project, for example, there are three people with exclusive rights in portions of that work. Any one of them could prohibit distribution of their work and bring the project to a halt. They would be completely within their rights to do so. The way to avoid problems like this is to make use of one of the provisions of copyright law to assign the copyright to a single entity. Then it is that entity which owns the rights to the entire work. This is known in the industry as “securing” rights.

Depending on how serious you are about your game, it might be worth your time to look into setting up a company to “own” the copyrights to your game. That can bypass a lot of the difficulty and make provision for each of the people who work on the game to own a share of the company itself instead of one game. The specifics of this are outside the scope of this article but it is something your IP attorney might be able to help you with.

Under the Copyright Act of 1976, there is a category of copyright assignment called a “Work Made for Hire.” This is a provision of copyright law where if an employer hires an employee or contractor to produce a copyrightable work, the employer gets the copyright once it is produced. Technically, the copyright vests in the employer instead of the employee the moment it is “fixed in a tangible medium”.

Work for Hire only applies to certain kinds of works, so it is important that you do your homework ahead of time. If a work doesn’t qualify, calling it a Work for Hire may not secure any rights. In such a case, the copyright may “revert” to the original author (employee or contractor) and give the employer no rights.

In cases where a Work for Hire isn’t practical, an author can “assign” their copyright to another party. This is essentially selling the right, or transferring title to the right. Assignment of a copyright is subject to certain legal restrictions. Generally it can only be done with a written contract.

It is vitally important that a group of people working on a project make provision to assign the copyrights (through either process) to some entity, whether it is a company or the manager of the project. This prevents all kinds of potential hang-ups and obstacles later, especially if that project starts earning any significant revenue.

Copyright and Game Art

The moment pencil touches paper (or stylus touches Wacom, or mouse clicks in Photoshop), the art is copyrighted. That copyright vests with the artist and stays with the artist unless there is an agreement between the game developer and the artist for assignment or license of those rights.

Artists who are knowledgeable about copyright law often grant licenses to developers to make use of their work. This is something we offer at Heavy Cat Studios through our distribution company Palace in the Sky Productions. The least expensive option is for a developer to commission art under a commercial license. They can then make use of that art in their game project and even sell the game at retail. However, our studio retains the copyright.

Some developers want full rights to their work. For those clients, we offer to assign the copyright in the works we produce for an additional fee.

If you are a game developer this is something you must be cognizant of before you start commissioning artwork from any third party, especially a studio. You should prepare a written agreement (this is an excellent time to bring in an IP attorney) and make sure the artist or studio signs it before they begin work.

A verbal agreement isn’t enough. Your artist owns the copyright to the art they produce regardless of any agreements you made ahead of time unless those agreements are in writing and they are appropriate for the rights you want to exercise. This is crucially important. Failure to secure rights in the art for your game can sink your entire project.

Once you start the process of securing your rights, also be aware that copyright law can vary depending on the part of the world you are operating in. By and large, you will need to obtain worldwide rights to any work you want to make available on the web, since national borders do not prevent a work from being transmitted from one place to the next. Copyright licenses can be divided in any way a rights holder chooses. This means they can say “you can copy my work, but not in Canada.” Make sure you have rights for every territory you plan to sell your work in.

International copyright law is largely governed by a treaty called the “Berne Convention.” The specifics of this treaty are outside the scope of this article, but suffice to say that any country that is a signatory to this convention will have strong protection for copyright holders. You will need to secure rights in all of these territories in order to avoid running into possible problems in other countries. The easiest method, of course, is to obtain worldwide rights to any copyrighted work you need to include in your game.

In most cases, art for a game qualifies under the “Works made for Hire” rules as contributions to an “audiovisual work.” Again, consult with an IP attorney on the particulars. If a work doesn’t qualify, you can always have your artist assign their rights in the work.

Trademark

A trademark is a word, icon or visual representation that uniquely identifies your company or product in the marketplace. Game art can most definitely be trademarked. The most obvious candidates for trademark protection are your game and company logos.

There are two kinds of trademarks. One is often referred to as a “common law” trademark. It is used to secure protection for a mark in commerce while registration is pending. It is identified by the “TM” next to the mark. This means the word, icon or visual representation is a trademark, and that trademark protects that mark, but that is has not yet been registered.

A registered trademark is one that has been filed with the United States government. It is identified by the “circle R” ? symbol. Only a registered trademark can use the registered trademark symbol.

Filing a trademark registration is a project that absolutely requires the assistance of a qualified attorney. Attempting to do this on your own without significant study and care can be both expensive and time-consuming and there is no guarantee of success. The Patent and Trademark Office can and often will reject applications with even trivial errors or omissions. Better to get help with this one.

Trademark in Game Art

We know a logo is often the best candidate for a trademark. However, in some cases, your character art can qualify as a trademark. The most recognizable trademarked character is Mickey Mouse. Disney Corporation is uniquely identified by the “mouse ears” motif and by the character itself, so that character can qualify for protection under both copyright and trademark law.

Trademark law is written to prevent the buying public from confusing one company with another. It prevents one company from using the good will and reputation of some other company to sell its own products. This is unfair competition because the first company may not have earned such a reputation with customers who trust the trademark. Essentially using another company’s trademark is tantamount to impersonating them in the marketplace.

Once you have trademarked your game logo, for example, if some other developer uses a logo that is too similar to yours, you have the right to stop them because that other developer could confuse your audience and customers into thinking they are somehow affiliated with you. You might not want that, so trademark law gives you a way to stop them from inviting the public to draw the wrong conclusion.

While you are securing rights, be sure to consider registering a trademark for your game’s logo and for your iconic characters if you so choose. It is a valuable way to protect the quality and reputation of your product in a competitive market.

Patent

You probably think I’m not going to come up with a way to apply patent law to games, but you might be surprised at how easy it is to stumble into patent problems without even thinking about it.

For most projects, copyright is more than enough protection. Preventing some third party from taking your game, slapping a new logo on it and selling it is the key protection in copyright law.

But copyright only protects your specific expression. Patent law protects the method or process embodied in that expression. It is somewhat more abstract than copyright law.

Many programmers object on a number of bases to the idea of a software patent. In some cases, there may be a consensus there is only one right way to do something in software, and if that is patented, that means any programmer who doesn’t have the patent must violate someone else’s rights in order to write their program, even if it is original work that doesn’t infringe on the other programmer’s copyright.

Patent and Game Art

Leaving aside for the time being the controversy over whether software should be patented, just be aware that computer games and games in general are not immune from patent law. The board game “Mouse Trap” for example, was a candidate for a patent, since the little plastic Rube-Goldberg machine that dropped the cage on the mouse was a working mechanism with a commercial application.

Mouse Trap is a tremendous example of just how far intellectual property law can stretch when applied to a game project. Theroetically, that colorful plastic trap mechanism qualifies under all three major categories of intellectual property: The pieces themselves can be copyrighted as unique sculptures. The entire trap mechanism can qualify as a separate unique sculpture distinct from its pieces. The entire mechanism could qualify as a unique symbol of the company that markets the game, making it a candidate for trademark protection and, since it is a working mechanism with a commercial purpose, it could also qualify for a patent.

That’s a lot of rights for one game, but that level of protection could be considered appropriate given the iconic nature of the game for the Ideal Toy Company. It likely took a lot of work to get that game to work as well as it did, so it was also advisable the authors of the game do what is necessary to protect their invention.

Patents can be licensed or assigned just like any other intellectual property. If you own a patent, you have a series of exclusive rights just like a copyright or trademark holder. However, a patent has a short term. It also requires the assistance of a qualified attorney to file. Patents are very technical and specific.

For most game developers, patents are not going to be a major concern unless you find yourself up against a litigant who claims you violated their patent. The overwhelming majority of game software is very similar from a technical standpoint, so the likelihood of a patent claim, while possible, is still fairly remote.

Free Software

Any 21st century discussion of intellectual property would not be complete without covering the world of free software and open source software.

Be aware that free software and open source software are not “un-copyrighted” works. Those works are still covered by and protected by copyright. In fact, the copyrights in those works are what gives their authors the legal authority to enforce licenses like the GNU General Public License.

The only works that are not covered by copyright law are those that are placed in the public domain by their authors. Public domain software is free for the taking. You can do anything you want with public domain works.

Publically licensed works, such as those under the GNU General Public License and its equivalents should be considered copyrighted software with a permanent license attached. That license gives you stable, permanent permission to exercise certain rights of the copyright holder under certain conditions, but that permission is contigent on you fulfilling those conditions. Remember that permission can be withdrawn as well as granted, and that if permission is withdrawn, your right to exercise the copyright holder’s exclusive rights is also withdrawn. The same is true of works you might find in the Creative Commons.

Very often, with a little work, you can assemble a great majority of what a game project needs from publically licensed sources and supplement the rest with commercial works. This can often reduce costs in areas where even with significant expenditures, you will not exceed the quality of what you can obtain for low cost or no cost anyway.

Free Art

There are a number of stock art services available. For most game purposes, these sources can be hit or miss with regard to quality or technical limitations. Art is subjective. It is evaluated on style as much as utility, and graphics that are cobbled together from numerous sources often look like they were cobbled together from numerous sources.

Some kinds of art, however, can look presentable, even attractive if they are assembled from multiple sources. Many of the projects we do at Heavy Cat Studios make use of pixel art, and our Indie Game Art Store features pixel art for RPG and sidescroller-style games. Because of its style, pixel art is a bit more forgiving when it comes to looking like it all fits together. Two different styles of illustrated art, on the other hand, might not look quite as attractive.

Conclusion

The key to the intellectual property side of indie game development is to be aware of the details and to make sure you have your bases covered. The best example of the hazards you face if you don’t do your due diligence is the Spider-Man property.

For decades, the Spider-Man movie rights languished at Marvel because there were up to ten different companies with various rights to make a film. Since these licensees could not agree on how to make a movie, it just didn’t happen.

The reason is if one of them went off and started production, any of the others could have used their license to say “this producer is exercising the legal exclusive rights I obtained from Marvel to make this film” and thereby stop production. They were all within their rights to say no. Trust me when I tell you getting ten people to agree in Hollywood is like trying to get a unanimous vote in Congress. It ain’t happening, no matter how much money you have. Ronald O. Perelman was a multi-billionaire when he owned Marvel Entertainment. He didn’t make much progress on Spider-Man movies either.

It took nearly 40 years for Spider-Man to escape from the rights mess.

Marvel filed for bankruptcy in the late 1990s. During that case, the company managed to unravel all the licenses. That’s why we got to see a Spider-Man film series starting in the early 2000s. All the copyrights and licenses reverted to Marvel after the company emerged from bankruptcy. Because they now had their exclusive rights back, they could then proceed to make their film. They exercised their right to make a “derivative work” under copyright law.

If you are an indie game developer, my advice to you is very simple. Unless you want your game to be tied up in a copyright dispute for 40 years, protect and manage your rights. It will make your project that much more valuable and have a much better chance of success.(source:gamedev)