Monday, May 11, 2009

To Copyright or TM not to copyright or TM

Copyright symbolImage via Wikipedia


There are a lot of indiegame developers today that have realized the girth of crating a large piece of work and have looked over the net for help. There are may forums and RRR's out there to help people get together. Once the group gets together they come up with a brand name to showcase their groups games. This is a good idea for those group that plan to stick together for a while or for a person who plans to create an ongoing portfolio of thir work. Branding is important. It's important at the highest and lowest levels of any product, but it needs to be consistent and built up over time. Many groups create a brand name at inclue . after it to make their game look more legimate however this could end up in a lawsuit. Clearly the laws are diffirent in other countries, but in the US it only costs about $10 to register a name(©).
Please dont get confused between TM and ©. A to trademark applys to a name, whereas copyrights(©) apply to a workpiece. To trademark a name also costs much more. With that said be careful about throwing sighns after your groups brand names. Check the laws in your area and do the right thing.

Trademark laws page
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/metaschool/fisher/domain/tm.htm
Copyright web page.
http://www.copyright.gov/

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