Are there any laws (United states here) that restrict commercial games from using real life weapon names?
The reason I ask this is because I’ve seen plenty of games that have a gun nearly identical to say… an Ak 47 but it is named differently. Bad company 2 or Stalker and Just cause 2 are some games I’ve seen that do this.
This has come up several times, have you done a search of the forums?
The short answer:
Many gun names and likenesses are trademarked.
The long answer:
Many gun names and likenesses are trademark, company names are certainly trademarked. Don’t go to forums looking for legal advice, you’ll only end up confused and disappointed if you follow most of it.
You can use copyrighted gun designs like the glock 19 in games, people do it all the time. Jut to be on the safe side I’d say don’t call it by its real name but I don’t think that gun companies are overly concerned about their guns being used in games the same way people use them in real life. I have never heard of anyone getting a lawsuit over using a gun design, and gun companies probably aren’t even going to look at your indie game. I’m not a lawyer and really have a very basic understanding of laws in general but I say you should be fine.
Thanks for both of your answers and I apologize for my ignorance. I am new to this forum as you can tell by my post count =P
@ Unfathomable chaos. So if I was to have a glock 19, to be on the safe side I could name it glock nine-T, or glok 19? Or does the name have to be completely different?
and about having gun models to be exact replicas, is that safe? and how far of a modification would I have to do in order for it to not break “copyright?” laws. Move a certain bolt to a different spot, have a different stock length perhaps?
I never thought of it until JRaven said that. Now I know this is no place to ask, but I don’t know anywhere else to turn to. I even tried google. But couldn’t really think of the terms to search for.
This is not a legal forum, so I would recommend contacting a lawyer if you want to know. When somebody says, “I’m not a lawyer, but here is what I think,” you generally shouldn’t follow that up with more specific questions. If you don’t care about intellectual property, do what you want; if you do care, seek actual legal advice.