I came up with a good name/tile for my game and don’t want others to be able to steal it from me. What can I do to protect the game’s name/title from things like IP infringement).
I want to make a logo/name for my indie game studio (A non indie example would be Minecraft’s Mojang). How can I register it and protect it from IP infringement?
I want to set up my game for funding on a website where people cam see it, but I don’t want to get scammed. Is there a safe reliable place to request funding for my game?
Trademarks. There are automatic trademarks and then there are registered trademarks. The former happens as soon as you release a game, start a studio, etc, but the latter gives more protection and you can register the trademark up to three years before you start using it.
Additionally there are two important things to keep in mind. First, a trademark is not international. You will have to apply for it in every country you want it protected. A US trademark, for example, only protects you in the US.
Second, you have to actively police the trademark in countries where this is required. Failure to do so can lead to you losing some or all of your legal protection for that name. Kleenex and velcro, for example, were originally trademarked names that have had this happen to them.
Kickstarter and Indiegogo are the two most popular ways to crowdfund a game over a short period of time. Patreon is a very popular way to crowdfund a game over an indefinite period of time.
You said I can lose legal protections if I don’t “police” other countires.what if I don’t? Do i stilk lose the protections in the countries I already registered in?
You have to actively defend them in the countries that you register them in. If you register in the United States you have to defend it in the United States, if you register in the EU you have to defend it in the EU, etc.
Yes, and the term for this is “failure to police”.
You don’t have to sue everyone that infringes on the mark but you do need to show that you’ve made an effort to police it and since there is no hard rule for how much you have to defend most companies will be a bit heavy handed with it.
That said you don’t just go straight to a lawsuit. You start off with cease and desist letters and for the vast majority of cases that will be sufficient to stop the infringement.