Phantom0x0
Jun 9 2011, 03:28 PM
Is is legal to trademark any games we make with rpg maker I wouldn't mind doing so but I ain't about to get sued because of it
X-M-O
Jun 9 2011, 03:37 PM
A trademark refers to the name of the game you've created, so it shouldn't be a legal issue to trademark the name of a game you've created.
Copyright is different and depends on the resources your game uses.
I'm not sure why you would want/need to trademark your game's name though. Seems rather pointless unless you are going commercial with it. =\
Phantom0x0
Jun 10 2011, 11:26 PM
QUOTE (X-M-O @ Jun 9 2011, 04:37 PM)

A trademark refers to the name of the game you've created, so it shouldn't be a legal issue to trademark the name of a game you've created.
Copyright is different and depends on the resources your game uses.
I'm not sure why you would want/need to trademark your game's name though. Seems rather pointless unless you are going commercial with it. =\
What it is, is that When I finish Collage I want to remake the game without the help of RM and I dont want anyone to trademark the Name Yggdrasil in the game world and I just wanted to make sure it wasnt gonna get me screwed to do so
Helskyth
Jun 11 2011, 12:35 AM
as X-M-O said, there's nothing stopping you from trademarking your own original content (ie your title, custom made characters and such).
There are laws up about intellectual rights to things, so even without the trademark, people are not allowed to go about using your content and ideas and crediting it to themselves.
So in the sense of what you're hoping for here; you can make your game, and then go about starting from scratch in your own way later, and not be infringing on anyone else's content, and the fact that you intent on making it from scratch on your own just enforces the intellectual copyright further.
In further example:
-I've written the story for my own game and am now using RMXP to make it. I own the intellectual rights to the story and the characters within, as well as any custom art I do; no one else can use it without permission, and if they do, they need to put credit where it is due.
But I don't need to actually trademark anything yet, unless of course I wanted to copyright what work is within it, but at this stage it's a potential cost that is not important. (I say potential, because you can buy trademarks and copyrights for material if you want to have the law on your side should someone take what work is actually yours and use it without paying credit, or in the case of purchased copyrights, a royalty).
-Later on if I again use the same story and such, working the game from scratch like you, then I would defiantly have a copyright and/or trademark on game. It gives me more publishing rights by doing so, so long as I'm using my own content.
There's plenty of other ways you can look at this, and lots of circumstances relating to trademarking and such.
But to answer your firt question.
Yes, it's legal to trademark a game you've made in RM, so long as you only trademark the material you yourself created, and express this in creditation where applicable so that you don't get in trouble by other thinking you're claiming ownership on the content that isn't yours.