Post by Glubibulga in Question about legal issues

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I'm studying laws in Europe, and I'm 100% sure about it :
Yes, it will be taken down as soon as they see it.

Let's say they choose to be kind with it, and they allow those characters use for free...
In France & Germany (and probably Spain, UK, Italy...), that's a failure to enforce exclusive rights.
And it's a highway to a trademark abandonment :
Any other companies (even EA Games...) will be free to use those characters, and free to release a DotT sequel commercially.

It seems stupid, but companies have to prove, at some point, that they did defend their trademarks.
That's why Ferrero is striking some Facebook pages titled "My Nutella cake recipe" :
If they want to block other food companies to use the "Nutella" brand, they have to strike the fan-pages too.
They are'nt allowed to be selective.

No, that's not (always) about money, and that's not (always) some kind of evilness.
That's about "not losing characters".

The only way to be safe is to sign some uage agreement with LucasArt. Even for a symbolic $.
For what I know, some editors, like Valve, are quite kind with that.

I'm saving this game preciously, and everybody should.
Internet will remember it anyway.... Internet always remembers.
Cheers from France, and congratulation with you game !

acoto876 years ago

Thank you, everything you said makes sense. Even if the project isn't released commercially and no profit is made from them, probably the companies will take those actions, right?

insomniac_lemon6 years ago

While I don't doubt takedowns are swift, unquestioned/undisputed, and can have a chilling effect (intentional or not)...

it's not entirely cut-and-dry. See http://www.inta.org/INTABulletin/Pages/NotAllIsFair(Use)inTrademarksandCopyright... and http://www.betalaw.info/can-lose-trademark-rights-dont-sue-infringers/

Particularly, simply using a name is not necessarily infringement (people aren't going to assume association of Nutella just because it's the centerpiece of a recipe, and if anything it will boost sales of the trademark holder) and intellectual property doesn't need to be protected like the last thin-shelled egg of an endangered species that's largely undocumented.

I'm sure if fan games are ever attempted to be used as a defense to claim abandoned intellectual property that defense would be stricken down. Certainly if said fan game is gratis (and non-commercial to a certain degree, especially if the difference of revenue vs profit is taken into account), non-competing, not intended to cause confusion, and not causing significant damage to the brand. And heck, if EA match all of that, then more power to them (considering their track record, I doubt they can accomplish any of that).

acoto876 years ago

I read the articles and yes, it's probably like you said, there are a grey area in which not suing an infringer does not neccesarily lead to trademark abandonment. However it will probably apply differently in different countries or states in the US.

Well, I hope these guys from RotT had got the appropiate permission from Disney and avoid all the trouble.

Offler6 years ago

I understand and probably it happens this way ... but should not be like this necesarilly

It is as easy as Disney says "ohh what a nice fan game ... you have my authorization but you must credit Disney Trademark", and this way they have protected the trademark.

itch.io

Viewing post in Question about legal issues