Intellectual Property Rights for Game Developers

Intellectual Property Rights for Game Developers

This paper is based on the analysis of intellectual property and legal issues. In this paper, the issues have been discussed from the perspective of game designers and developers. The topics covered in this paper include trade secrets, patents, and copyrights.

The interest of researchers in the topic of laws for the virtual environment has been increasing. Trade secret is a significant issue for game developers. However, a little has been said about this topic so far. Trade secret is considered to be important for game developers because the knowledge and information of a game developer needs to be protected as the information of manufacturing companies.

The things that are subjected to trade secret protection include information of customers as well as customer lists. A game developer is required to possess information about its clients and customers. This information can be protected by the developer as trade secret. In different markets, businesses often protect the design of the product through trade secret. Game developers can also protect the product design in by protecting the elements of a game as well the mechanics involved in a game. Game developers can also protect the design of product by protecting their development tools as well as software used for the development of games. An important area that is significant for game developers is the trade protection of different computer programs. An important piece of information related to the trade secret of computer programs is that the disclosure rule does not apply to computer programs (Drahos, 2004).

In addition to trade secret, copyrights are also important for game developers to be considered. Computer games consist of a variety of material that needs to be copyrighted. For instance, they consist of computer programs, artistic work, music, sound recordings, and others. When developing games, game developers are required to get permission before incorporating any of these materials of game. The game developer is also required to pay attention to the license of game. The person who purchases the software also requires a license in order to use the software. The licenses can limit the rights of purchasers to use the software program commercially.

It is also important for game developers to know that copy rights do not protect the basic idea or concept of a game. Furthermore, copyright does not protect the information on how to play the game. Therefore, the ideas, styles, and information of games are not protected by copyrights. Therefore, individuals who want to develop or invent games need to prevent others from using the same concept idea.

Trademarks are also important for game developers. Trademarks are not just the property of game developers but they have an impact on aesthetic creations that impact everyday experience of game developers and game designers. Game developers and game designers use trademarks to identify the sources and quality of their games. Companies for instance Take Interactive and Nintendo incorporate their brand names into ...