Is the Game Name Taken?

http://boardgamegeek.com has an excellent database. Do a search on the site for your game's name. Also, do a few google searches for the name with the addition of the "game" query.

Also, I would advise you not to leave your e-mail address. Besides the constant threat of web crawlers trolling for addresses to spam, it is also bad etiquette. You came to this site to get an answer so why not take off your coat, sit, and stay a while? You might find answers to questions you forgot to ask :)

- Silverdragon0

Also, I would advise you not to leave your e-mail address. Besides the constant threat of web crawlers trolling for addresses to spam, it is also bad etiquette. You came to this site to get an answer so why not take off your coat, sit, and stay a while? You might find answers to questions you forgot to ask :)

- Silverdragon0

:oops:
I'm new at this forum thing and I see the wisdom in your advice. I've removed my accursed email address. BTW, I wrote that intital query late last night and only one or two people were on and that was also before I discovered you could 'Watch' your topic for responses. Excuses. Excuses.

...and frankly, don't go for the obvious. In trademark law, the standard is basically, "Would the name you have chosen cause confusion to the consumer?" IOW would they think that 'your game' was 'their game'
...such as calling it "Somewhat Trivial Pursuit" or "Anthing BUT Trivial Pursuit" would probably cause the consumer to think that the Trivial Pursuit gang had made it, and the the game was at least related to...

Parody games are protected, and you can use trademarks pretty much to your heart's content in those instances... but it HAS to be a parody.

...ask me about a game that came out in '96 (not by us!) called "Settlers of Kentucky" sometime :-)

The artwork/design of your game name is another aspect of trademark protection (e.g., McDonalds golden arches as the 'M' in their name)

I'm at the point where the feedback I've gotten for my game is such that I believe I'm ready to make the step of getting the name registered. Should I fork out the $335 processing fee or does anyone have another recommendation?

I've heard you can send your sefl via registered mail the complete game and it is protected that way as well. Or is this a myth?

Carey

First, I've gotta say that I'm not an expert at Copyright/Trademark/Patent laws, but I've taken some classes, and here is what a brief summary of what I've learned from them towards what you are discussing.

When people are talking about mailing something to themselves, they are talking about Copyrights, not Patents or Trademarks. A Trademark is basically just buying the right to secure a logo, motto, name or saying that will represent their company. This is solely so that your company will not be misrepresented or misassociated with another company. For example, if I wanted to open a hamburger stand I couldn't call it McDonnald's because people would associate the two and I would be misrepresenting myself and the obvious company. If I wanted to open a video store named McDonnald's it shouldn't be a problem, as there really isn't any confusing a burger and a DVD (hopefully). That said you probably would run into trouble if you opened a Burger King Video (unless you only rented videos from Hamburg or something like that).

If you had a company named Odwalla and you dealt with Beverages, then you might run into a little trouble as Odwalla for the most part is a West Coast company. Recently Odwalla has been expanding to other sections of the United States. If you already had the Odwalla Trademark in your State before they started then they couldn't use that name in your State. The law is much more clear with names of companies than with poducts, but it works about the same.

Copyrights are much more simple, as soon as you create something, you own the copyright to that thing. Period. What comes into question is the date that it was created and the field of influence that was upon you or that you had on others. This is where registering your Copyright comes in. If you submit a copyright it costs $30. And the US Government will back you up in an arguement. Even still, there is always the question of derivative copyrights. So, it was easy for George Harrison to get screwed for "My Sweet Lord", because there was no way that he hadn't heard "Leader of the Pack".

When dealing with Copyrights you cannot copyright a word, letter, saying, note, phrase, idea, concept, etc. This would be like saying that I came up with the idea of a shark attacking people and every shark movie would now be under my Copyright.

About the sending off a Copyright in the mail to yourself, it is an excercise in futility, as you already have the Copyright. If you want to prove the date, send it to the US Government. Otherwise, it is the whole schrodinger's cat dillema. If you open the box the cat dies; the cat may still be alive inside the box, but how would you ever know.

If you send a letter to yourself, then if it comes down to a court battle the courts will force you to open the letter to see if it is admissible in court as evidence. Well, as soon as the letter is opened then it cannot be admissible, as you now are submitting an opened letter that has no proof of date on it. Yeah, yeah, eyewitnesses and all that stuff are nice, but it won't hold up.

When dealing with games the thing to remember is that you cannot copyright mechanics, you can patent them, but that costs more than it would be worth, and frankly is detrimental to the board game design community. Could you imagine if everytime someone wanted to put out a variable hex map and some twit tried to sue them for their patent. So the US govenment is reluctant to back up many potential patents if they inhibit progress.

The ground is still hazy for game design though. In the case of Jungle Speed / Jungle Jam, the creators of the game put in a cease and desist against Jungle Jam, but I noticed it still in their new catalogs (perhaps they are only selling through their produced games).

What it really comes down to is that the board game industry is so small if someone screws you over chances are most people will know about it that are a part of the purchasing public. If some company were found to be stealing games, chances are that people would be less inclined to buy their products. So bad form will usuallly equate to bad business, and as a result works as preventative medicine.