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Couple of my friends and I decided to make an app game and it's almost ready. However, I am deathly afraid of the legal issues that may happen when publishing the app. I searched online and most of the results were too broad and not specific ("Secure intellectual property rights" or "Determine business arrangements"). So here are my concerns/questions:
1. Do I have to/should I trademark our "company" name? - We're probably not gonna make apps regularly so we wanna spend as little money as possible. Should we even have a developer name?
2. Is LLC or 3rd party publisher really necessary? - I have heard that you need to create LLC in order to distance yourself personally from the product but it's VERY expensive in Illinois. And many other publishers take hefty amount of revenue so I don't wanna give my app to a publisher. Do I have to choose or is going solo possible? Or is it risking too much?
3. Audio and image files? - I have heard that you can't use mp3 files without licensing it but is that the only audio file that requires licensing? Also, I'm using png files for all my images. They are safe to use right?
4. How "different" does our app have to be? - For example, is naming my app shape evader like space invader ok or is that too similiar? Also, I'm guessing you can't get sued over gameplay as long as you use original images and music right?
5. What do app developers usually get sued for?

Help me ease my concerns please. Thank you!

This isn't legal advice, but observations and experiences...

Firstly, nearly everyone on here publishes their games privately, and as a sole developer.
Secondly, bear in mind that 99.9% of games don't attract too much attention


No you don't, but if you write a hugely popular game then you are open to your name being abused. You can't protect your game ideas, but you can protect names, characters and game elements (e.g Super Mario, Middle Earth, Droid)


Not necessary


OGG Audio is the format to use, it is free of any fees/royalties. AppGameKit 2.0.20 now includes OGG as an available format.

It's fairly uncommon for app developers to be sued, at least in our portion of the market, I'm not aware of anyone here having any legal issues.

I think the most common pitfall these days is misrepresenting how micro transactions are handled. A lot of parents get vocal when their kid spends a fortune on pay-to-win IAP's. So long as any IAP's are clear and distinct, you use your own images and sprites, and you use OGG music with permission from the composer, you're very unlikely to run into legal problems.

Indie's used to be able to use MP3 files without concern, when they are targeting PC only, as the MP3 playback routine is not provided by the developer, it's provided by Microsoft through DirectSound so they are responsible for licensing. Because AppGameKit can target other platforms, it's safer to stick to OGG, even though you'd have to sell a considerable amount before there was any risk of legal action. If you made a game that got popular enough, made real money (like thousands), then people might start looking for copyright and licensing breaches. Really the app stores are a crap shoot, there's no reason to assume that your game won't get noticed, always assume that it will and make sure you have the necessary permissions and rights to distribute your game.

The flip side of the coin is that you might get ripped off, and there might be very little you can do about it. I have had my work used in a commercial game without permission, it happens all the time, all you can really do is spend your life savings on a lawyer or get on with it, take it as a compliment... stick to your own morals and standards and keep in mind that any game you release might be dug up in the future.

Wow. Thank you Batvink and Van B for the replies! You wouldn't know how relieved I am to hear your replies.

Most of us here program games for fun, and if we make a few dollars/pounds/Euros along the way, then it is a bonus.
With this outlook, you can't fail, you can only win

An LLC is useful to protect your non-business assets from liabilities arising from operating the business. If your LLC goes into debt and becomes insolvent in the usual run of bad luck, creditors of the LLC generally can't run after your personal assets not pledged to or used by the LLC. However, it will not shield you from personal liability for intentional torts that you direct the LLC to commit, such as intentional copyright infringement or intentional trademark infringement. For a very small company, it is usually a waste of money because to borrow anything you generally need to personally guarantee the loan made to your LLC anyway, and so you are not shielded from such a creditor. It is a good vehicle for certain businesses, like multi-member real estate holding or leasing companies.

The test (in the US) for trademark infringement concerning game names is whether the prospective purchaser of the game, when noticing your game's name, is likely to think that the game originates from or is licensed by whomever produced the prior game whose name you fear is similar. There are numerous factors which come into play. Having practiced trademark infringment law in the US for over forty years, including litigations on game names as far back as 1981( "Galaxian", "Pacman"), my gut instinct would be that "shape evader" would not infringe "space invader" unless advertising material and graphics between the games were quite close, but that is just a guess even from someone of my experience. Don't expect certainty or security in this area of dickering over "consumer perceptions".

As far as gameplay, I believe you can patent specific algorithms and specific implementations if code, but not a general concept. Unless you are copying actual code, cloning gameplay via different implementations falls into a grey area that doesn't really infringe the patent, but a patent holder may still be able to bring a case against it if your product gets to a point where it threatens the patent.