I am working on a game on my own, I am wondering if I should trademark its name? I would be gutted if someone started using the same name and applied for a trademark of their own.
You typically can’t trade mark a term that is already in use by a competitor. So you don’t have to worry from that perspective. Going through the trade mark process is probably more beneficial for making sure you don’t conflict with an existing mark.
If you are going to spend lots of dollars marketing the game, then trade mark away. But otherwise the cost is probably not worth it.
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What is your development budget? If the cost of the trademark is a small percentage of that, go for it. If not, you could wait to see if you get any traction first.
Unlike a patent, you can apply for a trademark at any stage (patents cannot be applied for once you have discussed an invention publicly), so the decision isn’t just should you, it is also should you now.
How special do you think the name is? I’ve got a couple of names I think are great, but they are unlikely to be created by someone else by coincidence, so I’ll just keep them secret until I’m ready to work on the games that suit them. There are many other things to take into account. It is quite a complicated decision, so we could only give advice if we knew the name, but you shouldn’t share that here.
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Im basically working on my own on this game, no real budget, just doing it in my spare time. I have hired someone to compose the soundtrack, but Im using unity store assets to build it as I am not a modeller/animator/etc. Im obviously not expecting the game to reach a mainstream audience (its a shoot em up) but i’m still wanting to release on PS4/XONE and PC eventually and hopefully if all goes well enough people will buy it to make my efforts worthwhile.
I was thinking of setting up a website for the game to show off screenshots and videos prior to release, would this be a good idea without a trademark in place?
Have you actually looked into the release process for consoles? I’d say you might need more than a small budget if you’re dealing with Sony in particular
Sony still actively lends out dev kits if you go to them with a decent prototype. There’s still the other additional expenses that come with porting, but loaners are still out there.
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Not saying it’s impossible to release for Sony as an indie, just saying it isn’t easy; especially if you don’t have a track record
I say Sony because for Xbox One you can technically just deploy via UWP
With the caveat that UWP applications on Xbox One are severely crippled.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/xbox-apps/system-resource-allocation
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Yep, that’s why I said technically. You ‘can’ do it, but depending on your game you may not want to
Don’t bother unless the game is successful (and actually finished), you will have enough time to apply for a successful trademark should it be needed.
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