Transcript Game Design Business: Protecting Your Intellectual Property Dr. Lewis Pulsipher Copyright 2013 Lewis Pulsipher Pulsiphergames.com Note about the slides  Slides are provided primarily for those who want.

Game Design Business:
Protecting Your Intellectual
Property
Dr. Lewis
Pulsipher
Copyright 2013 Lewis Pulsipher
Pulsiphergames.com
Note about the slides
 Slides are provided primarily for
those who want detailed notes later,
not as an accompaniment to the talk
 Consequently, they are “wordy”
 Available at
http://pulsipher.net/teaching1.htm
 Or just go to pulsipher.net (not
.com) or pulsiphergames.com and
look for teaching material
November 6, 2015
Who am I
 Designed my own games while a teenager
 Began playing commercial wargames in
1963
 Played the original Atari 2600 and have
played some PC games heavily, but rarely
play any video games these days; never
owned a game console
 My favorite game is “the game design
game”
 “I am not a lawyer”
Who am I
 Designer of several commercially-
published board wargames (most
recently January 11), more games to
come
 Active designer of board and card games
(playtesters solicited!)
 Book “Game Design: How to create video
and tabletop games, start to finish”,
McFarland (booth at GenCon)
 Wikipedia: Lewis Pulsipher; Britannia
(board game); Archomental
Some of my games
We’re talking about business,
not about game design
 But if you want to make money, you
have to know the business
 Lots of definitions of “intellectual
property”
 Let’s just call it the products of your
mind
 How do you prevent others from
using the products of your mind?
 MOSTLY, YOU CAN’T! But you don’t
have to worry about it!
Intellectual Property Rights
 Ideas are not important, and not valued!
– Ideas are a dime a dozen: execution is far more
important
– “There is nothing new under the sun”
 Game ideas cannot be protected, only specific
expression of an idea
– George Harrison was successfully sued for the tune of
“My Sweet Love” being derived from “He’s so Fine”
– But this cannot happen in games, because game ideas
are specifically not protected by law
– No, I don’t know why; but imagine if every game idea
WAS protected. Few games would be published
Kinds of protection
 Copyright
– Easy to obtain but not very effective
– “Trade dress”
– Now expires 70 years after author’s death
 Trademark (and Servicemark)
– Both common law and registered trademarks
– Does not expire as long as in use
 Patent
– Almost never used
– Very expensive and time limited
Copyright
 Prevents others from using your exact
words (and artwork/photos)
 Copyright now inherent
– As soon as you write or draw it, it is
copyrighted
– Registered copyright makes lawsuits much
easier to pursue and more remunerative
– Forget that “mail to myself” idea – an urban
legend
 But registered copyright ($35) enables
much greater compensation in court
cases
Copyright
 Someone can legally rewrite the rules to
your game, redo the art, and publish it
– A dozen Risk clones being played online
– But trademark forces a title change
 But if they do, the negative publicity will
be enormous – it’s a small industry
 Some cases:
–
–
–
–
“The Twin”
“Tetris Strategy Game”
Maharajah
Quirkle
Trademarks
 Protects titles, characters
– E.g. “John Carter” still trademarked long after
the Barsoom books are out of copyright
 Two types
– Common law – add TM to title
– Registered – about $350, ®
– Registration makes for stronger court case
 Must be in commercial use
 Look up online, Trademarkia, US Gov
– Dragon Rage, Dragon Rage video, and
Dragon Frenzy
Patents
 Protect a specific expression of an
idea
– Usually a product
– Also “design patents”
 US Patent Office is thoroughly
screwed up because it self-funds
– The more patents it issues, the more
$$$ it makes
 Limited duration (26? years)
Patents
 Far too expensive ($3-10K)
– Successful games very rarely patented
 Much too expensive to defend in court
 Why spend more money than you’re
likely to make on the game?
 Most well-known: patent on Magic: the
Gathering, not just on “tapping”
– “look and feel” come into it again
 You can see online the latest patents –
virtually all are STUPID!
– US Patent Office database
Using Licensed Properties
 Tie-ins with movies, comics, books,
etc.?
– Much too expensive
 Often not even worth the IP owner’s
time to do the processing for a
boardgame—there’s not enough
money to bother with it
 Those who do get licenses have track
records (FantasyFlightGames, e.g.)
Contracts (IANAL)
 Not enough money to make a lawyer worthwhile
– And how many lawyers have a clue about game
contracts?
 Everything is negotiable
– But the ultimate strength in negotiation is the ability to
“walk away” if you don’t like it
– You probably want publication more than the publisher
wants your game
 An advance against royalties is possible but not
standard
 If it isn’t clear, have it changed or deleted
 What counts is what’s written, not any oral
promises!
 Contracts exist to determine what happens when
things are not going well
What to include in contract:
 Publication: if the game is not published
within X time (12-18 months?), it reverts
to designer
 Reversion: X time after a game is no
longer in print (12-18 months?), rights
revert to designer
 Ancillary/derivatives: who gets what if
there is a computer version, T-shirts,
other non-game items
 Author’s right to use the game system to
create other games not destined for same
publisher
 Digital game rights
Online resources
 Boardgamegeek.com (along with sister
sites for RPGs and video games)
 Sloperama.com – good advice about
getting into the video game industry
 Board game designer’s forum
 GameCareerGuide.com (video games)
Questions?
Comments?
Wasteful Patents
 4/30/2011 Game patents for a month.
– Most game patents are ridiculous
– Text below often copied from PurplePawn.com
 Conditional application of hit card – A blackjack variant,
where you are dealt an optional card which you can
exchange, along with a variable payout table if you do so.
 21 to the river – A blackjack/poker combo, described in
news article.
 Educational game apparatus – Roll the dice, use math to
figure out numbers to flip. The patent was written by
someone with a loose grasp on English syntax and
grammar. The game is called Funberz by Dane Compton,
currently without a website.
More wasteful patents
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The Euchre Cube
The Euchre cube, designed by Patrick O’Donnell and self-published,
differs from your typical Euchre scoring pads and peg tracks in that it
prominently indicates the dealer (the guy next to the cube) and trump.
The inside has a recessed Euchre scoring track.
It’s patented, includes a bag to hold the cube (a deck of cards will also fit
in there), and costs $45 (plus shipping).
Board game – The game “Enlightenment” by Norman Vail. Chakras,
deadly sins, and spiritual enlightenment, etc.
Funny, but to me the game looks a lot like Hustler’s adult 7 Deadly Sins
game, whose object is not enlightenment.
Next we have seven design patents for card game tables from Marcus
Katz:
Yes, 7 complete design patents, thousands of dollars each, for tables
that, to the untrained eye, all look nearly identical with each other and
with all card tables that already exist.
Surfing board game – A board game, by Carlos Echecopar, a surfboard
designer who lives in Peru, where the board actually curls and you have
to surf (with magnets) your meeples down the wave.
More wasteful patents
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Interactive game and method of play – From Rehco (aka Rehkemper), a toy and
game design studio. A card game with cards that have oval portrait spaces for you
to put in pictures; several games include versions of Indian Poker and Charades.
Several games on BGG are cited as precedents.
Low/max card game method and apparatus – A gambling card game from NJ
company New Fun Enterprises (casino supplies). Player and the dealer each get an
odd number of cards, split them into two “half hands” (discarding one), and bet if
their “low” hand is lower than the dealer’s AND their “high” hand is higher than the
dealers. And the apparatus? A half table (like the above ones) with markings on
which to place your high and low hands.
Strategic pattern building board game – From a little company called Hasbro. For
the game Connect 4 x 4.
In order to point out the inadequacy of previous games (in order to promote the
need for this patent), Hasbro had to diss its own game of Connect Four: “Connect
Four.TM. is limited because only two players can play, because the suspended
matrix only allows a player to insert the colored discs into a single plane, and
because only one type of disc is used. Consequently, the difficulty and the
enjoyment of the game are limited.”
Gaming devices and methods of playing card games with indicator of cards played
from previous hands – Electronic assistance for card counting in Blackjack … which
makes no sense, since casinos typically try to prevent that.
More wasteful patents
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Pool billiard game with course thereof determined by cards – A set of
cards with pictures of billiard balls, to be used to create a multi-player
billiard game (pick a card, shoot that ball). may include additional
random event cards, such as miss a turn, etc.
Poker game – Though the patent uses the terms “attack” and
“combative”, it’s not a war game version of poker, sorry. Based on Texas
Hold’em, players are dealt additional cards, and cards they discard will
neutralize or cancel out center cards (and possibly cards in other players’
hands), causing them to be discarded and replaced.
Playing method and gaming machine for a card game including a
plurality of card games – A Baccarat game where bets are made on both
values and colors. I think this is primarily a gaming machine patent, but
not exclusively.
Special multiplier bonus game in Pai Gow Poker variant – As stated. From
Shuffle Master.
In Pai Gow Poker, each player is dealt seven cards and makes two
hands: one of five cards, and one of two cards.
Integrated game system, method, and device – Inventerprise is back, for
some reason.
Wobbling game system – From David Gray of Texas. A pirate-themed
game of balancing coins on a wobbling surface, as well as other games
using the objects. It’s pretty long.