As I am coming to the final stages of putting B-movie out I am dotting the t's and checking everything is ok. I was hoping someone here might be able to help me with trademark law. The only card in the deck that is a trademark is 'Godzilla', and I think I can use that as the game is a pardoy of the B-movies it mentions.
Is that right?
Cheers
Iain
Don't be so certain - James
Submitted by Shevaun on Wed, 06/06/2007 - 23:28.
Don't be so certain - James Ernest was already slapped up for releasing Before "I Kill You, Mr Bond", even though Bond is, in fact, quite a common name. He's has some success with "James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game" though.
Yeah, with that font you're
Submitted by JoE PrincE on Thu, 07/06/2007 - 07:12.
Yeah, with that font you're using I'd call the card Goozilla, just to be on the safe side. Most people will still read it as Godzilla but there's no copyright on Goozilla as far as I know!
"No, no it's not Godzilla, but we should run as if it were Godzilla!" - Japanese man 2, Austin Powers Goldmember
+++
JoE
+++
Prince of Darkness Games
Rock N' Role-Play....
Or Bogzilla! So long as it
Submitted by Andrew Kenrick on Thu, 07/06/2007 - 07:30.
Or Bogzilla! So long as it has zilla in the title, people will get the reference.
Check King Kong too!
As far as I can tell King
Submitted by Iain McAllister on Thu, 07/06/2007 - 17:36.
As far as I can tell King Kong isn't a trademark but I will check.
All the best
Iain
Lead Developer Mob Justice RPG
'The Giant Brain' has launched.
Right just typing in King
Submitted by Iain McAllister on Thu, 07/06/2007 - 17:48.
Right just typing in King Kong trademark into google came up with several cases so I am going to have to avoid that. I should be ok with blob and thing I believe. I will change King Kong to 'Giant Ape' and Godzilla to 'Dinosaur'. I will have to take off their edits as well though.
Cheers
Iain
Lead Developer Mob Justice RPG
'The Giant Brain' has launched.
"The Giant Ape from Down the
Submitted by Andrew Kenrick on Thu, 07/06/2007 - 19:54.
"The Giant Ape from Down the Road" is still a worthy title.
It does indeed. As does 'The
Submitted by Iain McAllister on Thu, 07/06/2007 - 21:49.
It does indeed. As does 'The Revenge of the 5'6" tap dancing dinosaur'. I rather like that.
Cheers
Iain
Lead Developer Mob Justice RPG
'The Giant Brain' has launched.
Gozirra?
Submitted by Rich Stokes on Fri, 08/06/2007 - 11:11.
Gozirra?
Nice idea but no. The owners
Submitted by Iain McAllister on Fri, 08/06/2007 - 23:00.
Nice idea but no. The owners of the Godzilla trademark have already tried to sue Mozilla and a variety of other places using that kind of name. Since my game is actually about b-movies they might actually win.
I dont even want to get near a court.
All the best
Iain
Lead Developer Mob Justice RPG
'The Giant Brain' has launched.
Got my answer, which was
Submitted by Iain McAllister on Mon, 11/06/2007 - 19:53.
Got my answer, which was bascially no. For all those interested this is the site you need to visit if you ever have questions about trademark use:
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/tm
It has a searchable database of registered trademarks.
Cheers
Iain
Lead Developer Mob Justice RPG
'The Giant Brain' has launched.
Very useful
Submitted by Gregor Hutton on Mon, 11/06/2007 - 23:58.
Very useful. Thanks Iain!
I was thinking when Matt
Submitted by Iain McAllister on Tue, 12/06/2007 - 08:03.
I was thinking when Matt redoes the site, we should really have a resources section with things like this in it.
Opinions?
Cheers
Iain
Lead Developer Mob Justice RPG
'The Giant Brain' has launched.
How about...
Submitted by Rich Stokes on Tue, 12/06/2007 - 10:36.
Non-Trademark-Infringing-Giant-Lizard-Monster
?
Nice.
Submitted by Matt on Tue, 12/06/2007 - 11:43.
Non-Trademark-Infringing-Giant-Lizard-Monster?
Making a feature out of it, nice.
Edited to add: But as in all such things, consult a lawyer, not the interweb.
-Matt