Trademarks and Copyrights...do we need them?

[Anarcho]

What's the story with trademarks and copyrights?  Is it necessary to formally get copyrights and trademarks for AGS games to prevent people from stealing characters, ideas or stories?  I don't seriously expect people to do this with anything I've currently done, but I can imagine how pissed off I'd be if some company stole ideas/plot/a whole game of mine and sold it.  Has anyone ever trademarked or copyrighted their games before?  I see that you can do it through the US Library of Congress for $30.

Just wondering...

[Raggit]

I think Trademarks and Copyrights are safe ideas.  I don't think anybody would have to worry about members of this community stealing their work, but you never know.  Especially since there are lots of lurkers and people on the outside who'd come across the game.

[Snarky]

You don't need to register in order to have your work protected by copyright. In accordance with the Berne Convention, the work is automatically copyrighted once you create it. Registering allows you to ask for more money if you sue, though. Copyright would cover ideas/plot/the whole game. A trademark would cover something like a title, a logo, a catch-phrase, a mascot, or some similar recognizable "mark".

[Ali]

Patents work for designs, medicines, tv show formats and similar. A trademark is a name or image that you trade under. See http://www.uspto.gov/.

Copyright is what would be of most interest to you in reference to AGS games and as Snarky has pointed out you aren't required to register copyright. Intellectual property is an odd concept, but a piece of artistic work belongs to you as soon as it's created.

The tricky bit is, as far as I'm aware you can't copyright an idea. If an evil corporation stole the concept for your game then you would have no recourse, unless they reproduced your work in some respect. This is something that people pitching TV shows and advertising concepts to production companies worry about all the time.

This is can be a good thing, at least no one can own the idea of "one lone hero must topple a dark power and rescue the princess". Imagine where we'd be if you couldn't use that!

[Redwall]

...with a lot more original stories around?

[SSH]

Copyright nis the only one you really need to worry about for AGS games, and the only thing you need to be able to do with copyright is prove that you wrote your stuff first. Posting yourself a CD with your game on with registered/recorded post (something signed for anyway) and leaving it unopened is adequate proof of date. However, I dont think anyone here has bothered doing that, as its only worth suing a big company if they steal your stuff and I don't think a big company is going to rip the sprites or dialogue from a 320x200 game these days...

In short, don't worry about it

[Anarcho]

Hey man, my game is in 640 x 400.  EA will be salivating over it.

But really, I'm not too worried about it.  I was just wondering what the process was and if anyone ever did it.

[GarageGothic]

Yeah, and dialogue from hi-res games is so much betterÃ, 

Actually, I think it should be enough to write "This game is copyright (c) 2005 YourNameGoesHere"Ã,  on the title screen.

Try checking out these two pages:
http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/
http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html

This passage in particular relates to what has been discussed:

I've heard about a “poor man's copyright.” What is it?
The practice of sending a copy of your own work to yourself is sometimes called a “poor man's copyright.” There is no provision in the copyright law regarding any such type of protection, and it is not a substitute for registration.

And this one is just plain weird, or perhaps the government does have a sense of humor:

How do I protect my sighting of Elvis?
Copyright law does not protect sightings. However, copyright law will protect your photo (or other depiction) of your sighting of Elvis. Just send it to us with a Form VA application and the $30 filing fee. No one can lawfully use your photo of your sighting, although someone else may file his own photo of his sighting. Copyright law protects the original photograph, not the subject of the photograph.

[SSH]

The point is not to be recognised by any piece of legislation, but rather to have a proof that your work existed at a particular date. There are obviously a huge number of ways of proving this, and I'd hardly expect any legislation on copyrights to attempt to ennumerate them all.

Also, these web sites are rather US-centric and the government one obviously would discourage people from using other ways to protect their copyrights, since they wont get their fee...

[GarageGothic]

I think the best way to protect your work is to make sure that it's widely distributed and well-known before anyone can claim it for theirs.

[simulacra]

Even though I plan to sell my game, I am not afraid that my work will be ripped off. I have bundled the game with a distinct graphical style - with logos and stuff to make it stand out but wouldn't register a trademark or anything as I do not see the need.

I totally agree with GarageGothic on this and plan to be very liberal in giving promotion copies of the game to other people.

[Anarcho]

I knew about the whole DIY copyright thing---sending yourself a sealed copy.  But I would just think it would still be difficult to prove in court.  I mean, a government protected copyright is a far cry from an envelope that can be tampered with. 

[SSH]

The government doesnt protect it, just record it.

It's probably not worth the fee given the probabilites involved