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Disclaimer: IANAL Trademark: if the game is trademarked, you can't re-use the name. Anything with a trademark needs to be replaced with a new name/logo that is

Disclaimer: IANAL Trademark: if the game is trademarked, you can't re-use the name. Anything with a trademark needs to be replaced with a new name/logo that is sufficiently different as to not induce confusion in the consumer. Copyright: all the source code is rewritten so there is no copyright there. The game assets like textures and levels are under copyright and needs to be re-created from scratch as well. Or require the player to own the original game and provide an import method. A lot of Doom engines for example would require you to provide the WAD files. Patents: this might be more tricky to work around. Patents protect algorithms and methods of production which might be integral to the game. I am not aware of games who are protected by patents. These are the 3 legal pillars of legal protection

codetrotter 7y ago
> Patents: this might be more tricky to work around. Patents protect algorithms and methods of production which might be integral to the game. I am not aware of games who are protected by patents. Given how much money is in the games industry as a whole it is kind of weird actually that we haven’t seen any publicly known patent trolling targeting game development studios yet. Perhaps they haven’t been targeted. Perhaps they’ve paid up in silence. Or perhaps it has happened and the public knows — it’s just that I haven’t heard of it.
- Teknoman117 7y ago
  I think the issue here is that basically all of the wealthy game companies are constantly copying game mechanics from each other that if any of them tried to start litigating over similar games, the whole thing would explode in their face. Hence why when PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds tried to sue Epic, they did it in South Korea. Also, FWIW, I found this online: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/273935/Texas_court_affirms_game_mechanics_not_protected_under_copyright_law.php https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/273935/Texas_court_affir... (admittedly, that ruling makes sense, game mechanics would need to be patented, not something you copyright)
  - Moru 7y ago
    Patent trolls is in general a company whose only reason to exist is to buy our register simple, general patents and sue other companies. There is usually no other business that can explode in their face. That is one of the most dangerous aspect of them.
- johndough 7y ago
  We don't hear about most cases because of NDAs, but here are some examples: https://www.x-plane.com/x-world/lawsuit/ https://www.x-plane.com/x-world/lawsuit/ https://www.clickerheroes2.com/patent_libel.php https://www.clickerheroes2.com/patent_libel.php https://www.gamedev.net/forums/topic/645267-patent-trolls-attacking-small-indie-developers/ https://www.gamedev.net/forums/topic/645267-patent-trolls-at...
jordigh 7y ago
I'm just so happy that someone actually mentioned the laws and at least vaguely alluded what each one does instead of just saying something like how "IP" laws (I don't like this term) forbid copying and they're therefore all pretty much equivalent.
delinka 7y ago
> Copyright: all the source code is rewritten so there is no copyright there. ...there is no copyright infringement. You own copyright on the things you create (or your employer does when hired by them to do such work.) You infringe others' copyright by using their work in a way that they didn't approve (or goes against how the law says you can use their work.) By creating your own implementation of $THING, you now hold copyright in your implementation. This does not alleviate the patent and trademark concerns.
Theodores 7y ago
You can't patent software. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_patent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_patent You might be able to in some places but in Europe they will laugh at you if you try and get your software patented. This has been the situation for a long time, so things like the Amazon 1 click patent are freak occurrences rather than the norm.
timClicks 7y ago
> The game assets like textures and levels are under copyright and needs to be re-created from scratch as well. Not so fast. It's very likely that a court would find that they are derivative works, and are therefore protected.

codetrotter 7y ago

> Patents: this might be more tricky to work around. Patents protect algorithms and methods of production which might be integral to the game. I am not aware of games who are protected by patents. Given how much money is in the games industry as a whole it is kind of weird actually that we haven’t seen any publicly known patent trolling targeting game development studios yet. Perhaps they haven’t been targeted. Perhaps they’ve paid up in silence. Or perhaps it has happened and the public knows — it’s just that I haven’t heard of it.

Teknoman117 7y ago
I think the issue here is that basically all of the wealthy game companies are constantly copying game mechanics from each other that if any of them tried to start litigating over similar games, the whole thing would explode in their face. Hence why when PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds tried to sue Epic, they did it in South Korea. Also, FWIW, I found this online: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/273935/Texas_court_affirms_game_mechanics_not_protected_under_copyright_law.php https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/273935/Texas_court_affir... (admittedly, that ruling makes sense, game mechanics would need to be patented, not something you copyright)
- Moru 7y ago
  Patent trolls is in general a company whose only reason to exist is to buy our register simple, general patents and sue other companies. There is usually no other business that can explode in their face. That is one of the most dangerous aspect of them.
johndough 7y ago
We don't hear about most cases because of NDAs, but here are some examples: https://www.x-plane.com/x-world/lawsuit/ https://www.x-plane.com/x-world/lawsuit/ https://www.clickerheroes2.com/patent_libel.php https://www.clickerheroes2.com/patent_libel.php https://www.gamedev.net/forums/topic/645267-patent-trolls-attacking-small-indie-developers/ https://www.gamedev.net/forums/topic/645267-patent-trolls-at...

jordigh 7y ago

I'm just so happy that someone actually mentioned the laws and at least vaguely alluded what each one does instead of just saying something like how "IP" laws (I don't like this term) forbid copying and they're therefore all pretty much equivalent.

delinka 7y ago

> Copyright: all the source code is rewritten so there is no copyright there. ...there is no copyright infringement. You own copyright on the things you create (or your employer does when hired by them to do such work.) You infringe others' copyright by using their work in a way that they didn't approve (or goes against how the law says you can use their work.) By creating your own implementation of $THING, you now hold copyright in your implementation. This does not alleviate the patent and trademark concerns.

Theodores 7y ago

You can't patent software. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_patent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_patent You might be able to in some places but in Europe they will laugh at you if you try and get your software patented. This has been the situation for a long time, so things like the Amazon 1 click patent are freak occurrences rather than the norm.

timClicks 7y ago

> The game assets like textures and levels are under copyright and needs to be re-created from scratch as well. Not so fast. It's very likely that a court would find that they are derivative works, and are therefore protected.