Name brand and trademarks

[lucky3809]

I do not know if anyone ever looked into it I can't find much but what i have researched....

Can you use name brands and trademarks as items in your game?

I found while researching this for awhile you can if your not selling the product, and you have to list the copyright owner on your site also, which is a no brainer.

However is this bit true? Has anyone ever tried such? I know Pokemon has been used in such manner and also Bleach.

[a_bertrand]

No you normally cannot without agreement of the holder of the trademark

[Djkanna]

[...]

However is this bit true? Has anyone ever tried such? I know Pokemon has been used in such manner and also Bleach.

I know sweet F.A about trademarks and acceptable uses.

However, I think Pokemon fan sites, generally help the product, so I doubt that if it is actually against the law, (who owns Pokemon? Nintendo?) would do anything about it (also it's mostly not-for-profit).

Same for Bleach, which to this day, I still have no idea what this is, well except for the cleaner (and hair dye).

[rulerofzu]

Difference is a fan site probably doesnt make any direct revenue from the brand/trademark. Advertising revenue probably.

Using them in a game would mean you are selling the trademarked name. So that would be frowned upon.

[a_bertrand]

Well if you look around sites like:

http://underdevelopmentlaw.com/tag/trademark/

It's clear you CANNOT use trademarked names / content, or even content which could be too similar to some other (like harry potter). So... If your game is an amateur game, and you will have like 100 people playing I doubt somebody will ever make an issue of it, yet if it starts to be well known, the trademark holder will quiet certainly fire up something. Best practice? Avoid it if you know it could be on the edge or if you already know it infringe some copyright / trademarks.

[Cronus]

If you are basing your game off of a trademark(pokemon, for example), it is very illegal and not allowed.

HOWEVER, if you are just using say... real car names for your in-game cars, it is still illegal, however I don't believe volkswagon or ford will be knocking on your door anytime soon.

You just can't profit from their trademark.

[lucky3809]

Thank you for all the replies.

I have contacted most of the name brands and trademark places to get permission.

@Djkanna -Bleach is a anime cartoon.

 

Most sites list in their terms who can use their logo, or stock photos, but nothing is stated about a game using them for an item, of no profit.

You see these photos on Amazon,ebay, and personal sites, even free stock images sites. So it really kind of confuses me. Even on games on facebook uses name brands and trademarks of companies.

[Dabomstew]

One example of when such a brand rip game gets sanctions is "School of wizardry", a Facebook game. It was an alright game, but a crazily blatant rip of Harry Potter, about as blatant as one could be without having Harry Potter in the title.

Eventually, they had to completely rework the artwork & names used in the game. Now they appear to be gone for good.

So yes, you can definitely get into trouble for doing this!

[lucky3809]

One example of when such a brand rip game gets sanctions is "School of wizardry", a Facebook game. It was an alright game, but a crazily blatant rip of Harry Potter, about as blatant as one could be without having Harry Potter in the title.

Eventually, they had to completely rework the artwork & names used in the game. Now they appear to be gone for good.

So yes, you can definitely get into trouble for doing this!

 

I remember that game, but never played it, but friends did.

I know you can get into trouble also with domain names too, such as if someone was to make a domain as nikeair.com knowing Nike is a shoe brand, and nike air is a product name, it would be copyright and trademark infringement

How is these websites though adding name brands and trademarks to their website and not getting caught, is beyond me.

Another question I had, what if a user is using images of such? Is it still a copyright infringement... Because users use these in their sigs, and display pic also in userbars.

[Curt]

Usually the users sigs and display pics are hosted on another website so i dont think that would be an issue. Don't quote me on that though...lol...just taking a guess.

[Dabomstew]

User sigs/display pics are one of those areas where it's still technically illegal to use copyrighted material, but the publishers will never bother enforcing that. The worst you'd get in any farfetched scenario where they did would be notice to remove it anyway, you'd think.