Video Game Lawyers News

Another very important part of copyright law for video game developers, both using it as a sword and a shield, is the Digital Millennium Copyright. This is an act from the late 90's that deals with digital copyright. For game developers, the most important part is Section 512 which deals with DMCA takedowns and safe harbor.
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There are five levels of distinctiveness that gives trademarks their strength. Trademarks are meant to identify the source of goods and they have to be distinctive. The two strongest of the five are arbitrary and fanciful trademarks. Arbitrary marks are when you use a term that has nothing to do with the product itself. A good example of this is Apple, Apple is a very strong trademark, because there is a distinctive disconnect between the items being sold under that name, and the name itself.
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The expense of getting a patent for video game development keeps most from getting a patent on their work. Startups are usually not prepared to spend the $10,000 to $20,000 it's going to cost to register a patent. It is mostly the larger platform holders, that will be filing for patents.
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When you have a video game company, nearly all of your value in that company is going to be in intellectual property that your developers are creating. It is not necessarily just the value of how many games you can sell, the primary value is in your intellectual property. When an investor is interested in funding your project, it is the intellectual property they are actually investing in.
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Major players in the video game industry are the platforms, where people are actually playing the games. The major players on the platform front are Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo to name a few, all have their own home video game console platforms, such as the PlayStation, the xBox, and the Wii. Steam is the big platform on PC's that people are using which allows developers to self publish.
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