I’m 16, and I’m new to making games. I want to release a racing game I will make on the PC and maybe Android with licensed cars that will be completely free. Will I be able to put the cars in the game without having to mess with legal issues?
No. (I’m going to set up a taxi company. It’s a bit unusual in the sense that the customer I pick up don’t need to pay me - it’s a totally free taxi service. Is it okay to steal your car so I don’t have to buy one? Yeah, yeah, I know you’re 16 and don’t have a car. My point is that you can’t use stuff you don’t own. And the correct approach is to contact the car manufacturers and ask their permission.)
I guess I should make cars based off of the real ones like Midnight Club 2 did. I’m not very good at coming up with my own car ideas from scratch.
Car names are Trademarks you can model are car but you can’t name it with out the permission of the manufacturer for example “Audio” or “BMW” that are Trademarks and the full rights are own by the companys
Free makes no difference. Damage awards will be for their loss, not your gain.
You cannot model real cars. Trade marks are not the only IP protection. There is also Unregistered and Registered Designs (patents and copyright as well, for completeness). Unregistered design rights do not need to be registered, but protection various in different countries. Registered designs offer more protection.
yes moonjump is right so you have to look what patents a registered for the car and than you have to change this in your product, maybe when you ask the manufacture you can get a permission but this is very unlikely.
You are not allowed to use real car but if you do so, chances are high that the car company will never know that you’ve made a game with their car without permission, unless you are pro and that you will sell your game. If it’s a free game, you’re only doing free advertising for them, i don’t think they will do anything, unless your game have been played by millions of people and that the image or use of the car in the game is not good, not reflecting the idea of the brand. So if you want to be 100% safe, model your own cars and call the one that looks like a BMW a BMZ or something but if not, copy some cars and change names I would bet that you won’t ever have problems for that.
Yeah I guess you can use real cars. Lots of games do it these days.
Just don’t include the manufacture’s logo anywhere on the car.
By the way i’ve asked myself the same question for the game i’m making : I’m working on a 4x turn based strategy game based on the Warhammer 40k universe (and mostly Battlefleet Gothic tabletop game). The game, as yours, will be free. Trouble is that i don’t even know how to contact Games Workshop for that kind of questions. So i’m making the game (because nobody else do it and that i want to play that game) and i’ll be releasing it on an internet website and surely that i will make a video to promote it on utube. Then only, maybe, if the game is good enough, i’ll try to contact GW to know if maybe i can sell the game. (I plan to have a beta version for january 2015) . But, important thing, the very first screen of my game is a disclaimer, saying that the game is unofficial and some other stuffs.
and if they say no, then what are you going to do? You’ll have wasted your time. (Yes, officer, I did steal SmokyZebra’s car. The reason is that I really wanted to ask permission, but I didn’t know how to contact him/her. So I stole it anyway. It’s actually SmokyZebra’s fault for not writing his/her phone number on the car. I did put a note on the window saying the car was stolen, so it’s not like I was trying to hide the fact.)
Most large organisations have legal teams who’s purpose is to protect the company IP. It’s easier to not let anyone use the IP, rather than try and decide who can and who cannot.
Just FYI it took me about 20 seconds to find:
http://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/...al-Information
That page includes the text:
all associated marks, logos, illustrations, images, names, creatures, races, vehicles, locations, weapons, units and unit insignia, characters, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, from the Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 universes are either ® or TM, and/or © Games Workshop Limited, variably registered in the UK and other countries around the world. All Rights Reserved.
I can’t access to that page, it says error 524… Well, This as nothing to do with stealing, it’s a fan made related game. What do you think about Starwars Cosplayers or other stuffs ? Are they stealing Goerge Lucas because they made a Chewbacca costume ? Hell no ! I’m not gonna sell it unless they want it, so i really don’t see where is the problem. I’m trying to adapt the tabletop game (wich is not sold anymore) for pc. Most likely, if some people play my game, it will mostly be people who’va heard about BFG Before, but some may not and may discover GW trough this game and then maybe by their products. It’s free advertising for them. there’s a lot of unofficial GW related websites, and the policy of GW as they can’t control it is to “allow” them, but they ask for a disclaimer. But most site don’t even have a disclaimer. I’m not waisting my time, because first this is a game i wan’t to play (and i will be able to, the solars systems are ramdomly generated and so on, it’s not like an RPG, where the creator can’t really play it’s own game. And untill now, all battlefleet gothic mods (wich didn’t have permission) failed, so there is no BFG pc game or mod playable and finished yet, it’s missing. GW is not even selling there BFG products anymore. I do as for an unofficial website, and I (and most don’t) put a disclaimer. Here is my disclaimer (wich is inspired by those that GW wrote for 40k websites, but wit more stuffs, like Battlefleet Gothic):
This game is completely unofficial and in no way endorsed by Games Workshop Limited
Battlefleet Gothic, the Battlefleet Gothic logo, Adeptus Astartes, Blood Angels, Bloodquest, Cadian, Catachan, the Chaos devices, Cityfight, the Chaos logo, Citadel, Citadel Device, Codex, Daemonhunters, Dark Angels, Dark Eldar, 'Eavy Metal, Eldar, Eldar symbol devices, Eye of Terror, Fire Warrior, Forge World, Games Workshop, Games Workshop logo, Genestealer, Golden Demon, Gorkamorka, Great Unclean One, Inquisitor, the Inquisitor logo, the Inquisitor device, Inquisitor:Conspiracies, Keeper of Secrets, Khorne, Kroot, Lord of Change, Necron, Nurgle, Ork, Ork skull devices, Sisters of Battle, Slaanesh, Space Hulk, Space Marine, Space Marine chapters, Space Marine chapter logos, Tau, the Tau caste designations, Tyranid, Tyrannid, Tzeentch, Ultramarines, Warhammer, Warhammer 40k Device, White Dwarf, the White Dwarf logo, and all associated marks, names, races, race insignia, characters, vehicles, locations, units, illustrations and images from the Warhammer 40,000 universe are either ®, TM and/or © Copyright Games Workshop Ltd 2000-2014, variably registered in the UK and other countries around the world. Used without permission. No challenge to their status intended. All Rights Reserved to their respective owners.
I think that’s enough, and as written, No challenge to their status intended.