think this was an old topic discussed many time… Is a military aircraft/tank name or model number copyrighted ?
Example, if including an F-35 lighting fighter in the game and on the game radar its named as F35 will violate any copyright laws ? even if the model was acquired from unity assetstore ? can use without having to buy expensive licenses for the game ? (assuming if Boeing/Lockheed bothers to answer any enquiries) or can you get away for having a just get away with a invented names?
Some can claim its for realism, as far as the manufacturer name is NOT mentioned there is no brand violations. What’s your take ?
Even your username is copyright violation technically, unless you have the Aston and Martin names in your birth certificate.
But probably the owners won’t come after you.
It is the same with any other copyright violation. If you stay under the radar (which means your game will be famous in your entire household), then you, for sure, can get away with it.
If your game gets released and get some traction, there is always a chance.
And if you’re in the EU or in the US, but especially in the US it is incredibly dangerous. Not because you don’t have a chance to win the battle referring to the Hummer-case which said that including their design is for realism in COD games, but because Activision has an army of lawyers on payroll, so they could even go into the battle.
Do you have an army of lawyers whom can get paid by you to have the chance to win that battle?
So thread incredibly carefully.
It’s important, I don’t say you shouldn’t do it.
I’m saying, think this through because it can have very dire implications. Decide if you want to take the risk or not.
And even if they don’t go to the court initially, they can send you a cease and deceit letter to stop your game from selling and ask you to remove their design from your game, or else.
And obviously, I can be wrong, I’m not a lawyer, blabla.
What If i don’t name the aircraft and model number, and just put an text “enemy” or “Drone” ? like a gun instead of colt ? but’s its modelled and animated exactly like a colt…
We might want to wait until that case is fully settled before drawing any conclusions, since this just happened (though your final sentence is right either way).
One thing (a lot of things actually, but the most pertinent) that isn’t clear - was Activision using a vehicle that merely looked like a Humvee, or was it actually labeled as one? A brief perusal of the document didn’t reveal that to me.
Though from the number of games which use F35 verbatim and the likeness of the aircraft, which I would assume most are doing so without proper licensing, I suspect Lockheed Martin is not actually enforcing such trademarks. Under US law, companies are required to aggressively enforce trademarks or they risk losing the trademarks. It is one reason why US companies can seem so vindictive attacking little guys all the time over seemingly minor trademark violations, because if they don’t do so that can be used as evidence the next time they try to enforce it that the trademark is no longer valid.
Colt lost their trademark to “M4” in a case where they tried to enforce the trademark against Bushmaster, partly because Bushmaster was able to provide evidence to the court of many companies already using M4 without permission from Colt and without Colt trying to enforce the trademark against them.
So if you’re flush with cash enough to fight Lockheed Martin in court, and have good lawyers available, you might already be able to use F35. IANAL