There are key visual differences here. The headlights are the same but also the same as something like a 240Z. The headlight bulge in the hood is completely missing. The hood is angled and flat. It is hard to tell but the back looks significantly different and has no side window. These kinds of differences make a difference. Whether it is enough to stop you from getting sued? That I can’t tell you.
And even if they didn’t get the licenses, they have a legal department and the revenue to fight legal disputes for years without any serious worry. An indie dev could see all revenue from their game lost to lawyer fees before even showing up to your court date, and IP owners know this.
The first post is from 2014.
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Just change the car badges and names and allow your game to be ‘modded’ by users easily so they can change car names and badges to ‘anything’ they like.
that’s how a lot of low budget sports games get past not having naming rights for players.
I’m not sure if you need to be worried about car likenesses, I’m not sure a car shape can be a Trade Mark…?
Yes, but they are still sketchy waters to tread…
For most of us, they are best rather avoided.
It is still subject to copyright and on top of copyright it can also be patented.
FYI - Even distinctive body lines and distinctive grilles are protected under these laws. GTA developers get around this by making major changes to the body lines, curvature of the body, removing badging and marks. I was a developer who modeled plenty of environments and vehicles for EA Blackbox on Need for Speed Undercover and Need for Speed Nitro.
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My GTA V image above there is no question that its a Porsche, the Vice City Posrche is less looing like a porsche
There are differences in the shape of the “face” and shape of the headlights, mismatch of some details and so on.
That makes it a similar car but not the same car.
If you find photos of corresponding cars, it would be quite easy to point them out.
I own a Porsche so I know the difference 
But thats the point. Change it a little and people will still recognize it but you will not get into legal trouble. Though there is nothing stopping Posrche from suing you anyway and then you need lawyers that probably can free you, but it will cost you
Google “Rogers vs Koons”.
Interesting. I’d like to know why games are treated differently than TV shows for example.
Many of those will feature debranded cars that are still recognizable by anyone. Yet nobody expects your average sitcom to customise a car to make it different enough to avoid using the original design. Car manufacturers themselves don’t do it as shown in this picture where some vehicles aren’t from WV.
I’m curious to know what are the legal limitations because if you think about it, it’s almost impossible to make a media set in our time without reusing existing designs.
It may have something to do with a player typically being able to wreck in-game cars or drive them. Which has a chance affect brand image, and does not happen in sitcom.
For example, if you use a car of brand X in your game, it is real, BUT also happens to be the absolutely worst car in the game, then it wouldn’t surprise me if the manufacturer would have a beef with it.
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A sitcom can still damage a vehicle image with a negative character which is why they unbrand everything they can.
Yes but that would be if I use the actual brand. We all agree that you’re not allowed to do that.
but if the car is unbranded, I don’t know if it’s good enough like it would be for a movie or a tv show.