Help, Legal and Video Games

[Jarred]

Hi There,

A colleague and I have started a company called bash games (www.bashgames.net - still under construction) and are in the process of developing a game called Circus Pomche. I am the artist on the project and as you might have guessed, being and artist I am completely clueless when it comes to legal.

Indie game companies usually spend around $5000 dollars on their games before they release them, my question is what on? I kw you would need to pay for the obvious copyrights and stuff, but is there anything else you would need to do before release? Also who would be the right person to speak to, to do all this. A general attorney ?

The game is primarily going to be distributed via steam, and via our website, so no publishers are involved, etc.

Any help will be greatly appreciated,
Thanks
Jarred

[Dave A]

As far as I know you need to register trademarks and patents. But you don't need to "register" a copyright; you need only publish with a dated copyright mark (for example, much as this website has in the footer).

So in a copyright situation you probably only need the lawyers if you become aware that someone has infringed your copyright (and there's enough money involved to make the matter worth pursuing).

Indie may be spending their money on obtaining a patent, which is a fairly complex issue - especially when it comes to software. A few examples come to mind.

Google holds a number of patents relating to its search algorithm. vBSEO holds a patent relating to the SEO of vBulletin. Mark Shuttleworth had a patent which lay at the core of his famous big sale. What makes this tricky is as far as I know these patents all relate to critical components of the overall product, not the entire product itself.

If you're going down this route, it really might be an idea to find an attorney who has some experience in software related patents, or drop Mark Shuttleworth a line.