I looked in the User Agreements and all that but couldn’t find anything on it so I decided to ask here.
If my friends and I were planning to make a free game that utilized another company’s IP is that okay, so long as we give credit where credit is due? Think Pokemon.
No. Absolutely not. No.
You must ask and receive permission.
The P in IP stands for “property”. Can I use your toothbrush and just give you credit?
Well, as the way I understand it some companies don’t do anything about their IP being used. Valve being an the most obvious.
Nope. You have to get permission directly from the company before you do anything like that. If they say no then bummer. If they say yes, odds are it will have to be free so it’s not competing with their associated products.
would you rather get a cease and desist letter from their attorney or possibly get charges pressed against you or your team? All that hard work would be wasted if you don’t ask for permission or if you do and they say no and you do it anyway because you think you can get away from it.
If you contact the IP owner and get their permission then it is fine. If it’s just a hobby project and you’re not releasing publicly then no one will ever know so you should be safe. If you are releasing publicly and you use other people’s property without permission then you could find yourself in court.
Just get permission.
Screw permission. Do a parody. 
lol. I would love to see that for any game actually!
I wonder how much they payed Activision.
If a company literally does nothing, depending on which country they’re in, they might have just forfeited all right to that IP.
Yeah, give up on the whole idea or you could face court litigation.
Not in US which is where most developers are located. As long as they enforce their IP aka sue anyone who uses it, they own the IP and you can do nothing about it (you can pay them though).
Overall I wouldn’t bother with fangames is because if you put effort into them it sucks badly to have it shut down. Instead create your own world and put a lot of effort into that. Not only will that give you more experience, the project will have higher chance of not dying.
That’s essentially what I just said - they forfeit it if they do nothing, so they have to do something whenever they catch someone infringing upon it.
This is what i would do if someone stole my IP
If you’re a big company you can always hire others to do it for you
Using a Lead Pipe doesn’t cut it – you can’t harvest that which has no life/knee-caps/whatever.
Detective Lawyers >> Lead Pipe dudes.
There are very few companies willing to turn a blind eye to fan works, especially if the work is for profit. You really must understand that particular company’s policies, their relations to fans, and their past reactions before even considering fan work. If you do decide to follow through with it, make it obvious that you’re willing to work -with- the company in question rather than to dodge their efforts to bring your project to a halt.
And of course, cease and desist means cease and desist.
This is not true. At least, it’s not how I understand it. If it’s MY IP and I don’t notice someone is using it, it’s still my IP.
@OP - Best to ask. Actually, it’s best to NOT use their IP. Just look at their ideas and be inspired to do something original, even if similar. Odds are your product won’t be worth anything, but if it is, they can come back later and get ya.
Gigi.
Only way you can do this is if you get direct written permission by the IP owner.
Example would be to use music by Kevin MacLeod. He provides his music free to use with a well-documented use conditions (give him credit is basically all that is required, a donation is a nice to have for him but not required.)
You can’t just go about and use some one’s IP. If you do this, you can be liable for a LOT of money. Imagine you use Pokémon and you get to distribute the game you make for free.
Best thing that can happen, Nintendo asks you to stop, remove the app from the internet and that would be it (if you do what they say.)
Most likely case, they call you to court, and you must spend money in lawyers and are able to “settle” for a few thousand dollars.
Worst case, still very likely even if not most likely: you go to court, you spend money in lawyers, they offer no settlement or accept no settlement, and the court awards hundreds of thousands of dollars in punitive damages.
ONLY USE SOME ONE ELSE’S IP IF THEY GAVE YOU PERMISSION.
Note: Nintendo will never give you permission to use Pokemon.