I am creating a race game. As i build models it dawned on me that I may need to model GENERIC vehicles. Is that a concern? It seems like the companies would like you to use there vehicles in a game for free advertising.
for product placement in the game like NFS or DIRT, does the developer pay the companies for the right to use or do yo think it is just permission to use.
A bit confused on this issue.
If for example, I used “Edelbrock” as a sponsor decal on a race vehicle am I violating trademark/copyright?
Thanks for your input!
They have to pay for licenses.
Car brand licenses are very expensive (we talk about 6-7 figure licenses per game here) and come with very strict rulings on what you can do and what not.
And yes if you use brands in this way it can be result in legal consequences.
its always a violation of trademark and copyright if you use it without written permission, independent of what it is. Difference is just if there will be legal consequences for you
ouch! Thanks, won’t be going that route then. So when modeling my car, can it “look” like the car, such as body style, etc. Just no branding?
(so modeling the jesse james race truck for game would be a bad idea:)) haha!
For cars the design itself is protected too if you clone it 1:1, but its very well possible to create something that resembles it without detail cloning it and without using brand specific exclusives in which case its no problem.
Also you can’t use the names naturally but thats normally the smaller problem
A common way out is to mix bits of different cars into one model. But definitely avoid anything associated with a particular brand. So for BMW you should avoid the shape of the radiator grille and the C-pillar kink.