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Geek Culture / Game Title Concern

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The Wilderbeast
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Joined: 14th Nov 2005
Location: UK
Posted: 18th Mar 2008 20:03
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I was just wondering...

If a company creates a game and doesn't copyright the name then is it possible to create another game (commercially) with the same title? Obviousley the franchises such as Gears of War etc. are all copyrighted and you'd get the s*** kicked out of you by their legal team, but I was hoping to name something Hellfire. I've looked on IGN for any games with the same title and I found two or three, all by different developers, and they came out at least ten years ago and were all for different consoles like the Commodore etc.


Thanks

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SunnyKatt
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Posted: 18th Mar 2008 20:08
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Nah, go ahead, name your game game that.

ZEKEGAMES FORUMS-GOOGLE "Zekegames"
http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=115938&b=20
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Oolite
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Location: Middle of the West
Posted: 18th Mar 2008 21:20
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Just because the game is old, does not mean the name is not still under copyright protection, use better sources than game websites, try looking into copyrighting a little more.

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SunnyKatt
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Posted: 18th Mar 2008 22:47
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Still, If several games used that name and it's not super unique, "hellfire" wouldn't be a problem. At least to me.

ZEKEGAMES FORUMS-GOOGLE "Zekegames"
http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=115938&b=20
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5Louiz
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Posted: 18th Mar 2008 23:24 Edited at: 18th Mar 2008 23:27
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Two or three?! That is an other good reason to not use the name.

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Darth Vader
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Location: Adelaide SA, I am the only DB user here!
Posted: 19th Mar 2008 01:48
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Quote: "Two or three?! That is an other good reason to not use the name."

Took the words right out of my mouth!


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5Louiz
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Posted: 19th Mar 2008 05:53
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Yes. I did. And such act forced me to wash my hands for the first time in two years. hohoho Just a joke.

Wilderbeast, you can adopt "Hellfire" as a temporary name. You will certainly have more original and better ideas as the project becomes more mature and consistent.

Cheers.

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Dazzag
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Joined: 26th Aug 2002
Location: Cyprus
Posted: 19th Mar 2008 09:26 Edited at: 19th Mar 2008 09:27
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Yeah, just call it whatever you want. Until the moment when you think you can make money out of it then no-one will really care, and then just change the name. Ok, so some really big free games such as the Monkey Island remake ones were shut down (but Lucasarts can be p****s) but I think the worst that has happened in the past is just that; they were stopped from releasing the game (at least with it's name and contents as it was and they apparently didn't want to change anything). And if you are still in school then you can get away with murder pretty much

Cheers

I am 99% probably lying in bed right now... so don't blame me for crappy typing
Current fave quote : "She was like a candle in the wind.... unreliable...."
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GatorHex
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Location: Gunchester, UK
Posted: 19th Mar 2008 16:37 Edited at: 19th Mar 2008 17:04
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I'm not a lawyer, so I could be wrong, but I've had a little legal training and this is my 2 pence worth...

A game title is not copyright. It may however be a trademark if it is unique enough to be so and is in use. Example 'Falling Blocks' is not unique but 'Tetris' is a unique brand name that is still in use.

You should avoid any confusion where your game could be confused with another title as it could be deemed as 'passing off' (trying to trick people that your game is the genuine offical one)

Sometimes similar titles are unavoidable like 'Dracular' so to differentiate their product from any pervious one they may add the authors name such as Bram Stokers Dracular or Tom Clancies Rainbow Six.

Also copyrights are lost 50-100 years (varies from country to country) after an authors death so you shouldn't have any legal issues with making your own version of Dracular, Hercules or Frankintein even if the storyline faithfully follows the original text.

Hope that helps

DinoHunter (still no nVidia compo voucher!), CPU/GPU Benchmark, DarkFish Encryption DLL, War MMOG (WIP), 3D Model Viewer
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Darth Vader
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Location: Adelaide SA, I am the only DB user here!
Posted: 20th Mar 2008 02:58
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Quote: "Yes. I did. And such act forced me to wash my hands for the first time in two years."

The question that's nagging at me is, how did you get your hands through my mask?


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