3 ms·
I am not a lawyer, but I am fairly confident that trademark law would apply even where copyright did not. That is, because Mario's likeness is a trademark of Ni
by gabemart 13y ago
I am not a lawyer, but I am fairly confident that trademark law would apply even where copyright did not. That is, because Mario's likeness is a trademark of Nintendo, you might not be able to use that likeness in a video game, even if the underlying assets themselves are not protected by copyright.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain#Trademarks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain#Trademarks
http://www.publicdomainsherpa.com/trademark.html http://www.publicdomainsherpa.com/trademark.html
- joveian 13y agoThis also means that franchises can protect the franchise name even if they lost copyright on individual works. But it is much more limited than copyright and it might have a little but I would guess not that much impact on the stuff that GOG does, for example. Most game companies are not using 20 year old graphics to promote their new games.
- stonemetal 13y agoIsn't trademark more limited? I couldn't call my game super mario brothers or use the art on the box where it might cause confusion in the marketplace, but inside the box could be all of their uncopyrighted content.