Hi guys, we’re a vfx animation studio about to dip our toes into the mobile games market and would like a bit of industry know how. Basically if we were to say make a driving game which features known car models would we have to get these officially licensed by the manufacturer’s i.e Nissan, Honda etc? Also say we had a flying object that transformed into a robot for example and looked similar to popular transforming robot design is this cool or are there certain regulations regarding likeness etc?
Just wondering how people go about these issues?
Cheers
SS
ps we’re not about to make a transformers ripoff game just to clarify!!!
Here’s one answerto the question of licensing car manufacturer’s IP.
For your second question, how similar? You can make transformer robots, however a yellow robot that transformed into a muscle car would be close to infringing. Plus your dealing with large companies with lots of lawyers looking to earn their pay, so unless you can afford good lawyers, it doesn’t pay to risk being shutdown.
And finally, before you do anything, you should talk to a good IP lawyer and ask him these questions. It may cost you, but the answers will be authoritative, which free answers on a BBS are not.
Yeah, they don’t have to win to look good to their bosses, just fire off enough letters to you, to bankrupt you, should you ever hold on long enough to go to court.
But see Strike Suit Zero, for a not-Transformer game done with no problems. (It didn’t get tagged for being a Decepticon ).
Yeah, they don’t have to win to look good to their bosses, just fire off enough letters to you, to bankrupt you, should you ever hold on long enough to go to court.
But see Strike Suit Zero, for a not-Transformer game done with no problems. (It didn’t get tagged for being a Decepticon ).
The short answer is yes you will need to license such elements as part of your game but only if you use brand recognition
Here is an interesting read.
Its not making a racing game but the use of Branding that manufactures or holders of IP have over the fast five years or so have begun actively begun protecting their brand names used in a video game.
You can make any kind of similar looking car but it’s not a good idea to call them a Nissan or a Honda.
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