# data[].attributes.body
Data protection and privacy

Gambling legislation

Responsibility concerning staff and employment practices

# data[].attributes.headline
Laws and Regulations relating to the games industry

# data[].attributes.subject
Laws and Regulations relating to the games industry

# data[].attributes.body
Jonathon and Daniel

# data[].attributes.body
Intellectual Property

What is I.P?

Intellectual Property is something unique that you physically create as an idea alone is not counted as I.P.

Intellectual property law deals with the rules for securing and enforcing legal rights to inventions, designs, and artistic works. Having the right type of I.P Protection can prevent people from stealing or copying:

The names of your products or brands

Your Inventions

The design or look of your products

Things you write, make or produce

Copyright, Patents, Designs and Trademarks are all forms of Intellectual Property. Some types of I.P apply to the points above automatically, some have to be applied for and approved.

Ownership of an I.P

You can own I.P if you created it(and it meets the requirements for a copyright, a patent or a design), Bought Intellectual Property rights from the creator or previous owner, have a brand that could be a trademark. This property can have more than one owner, belong to people or businesses, be sold or transferred.

If you create something during your work while under the employment of a person or business, that property will usually not belong to you, but will belong to the person or business you work, or previously worked for.

Copyright

What is Copyright?

Copyright protects artistic and literary expression.  While this meant just books, maps and charts at the beginning of the United States, today it covers a broad variety of creative expression from email, to websites, to video games. Please see our Citizen’s Legal Guide to American Copyright Law for copyright law basics.

Copyright law is governed by the Designs and Patents Act 1988, basically, a content creator can copyright their content so permission is required in order for the content to be used elsewhere. On the circumstance of the law being infringed; legal

Trademark

Trademarking is when a company name or logo is associated alongside a game. Many players recognise companies and the games they produce by the trademarks on a game box or opening titles for a product. As valuable business assets, trademarks put a stamp on a product to identify who owns it. Trademarks can be protected through laws and registration to a trademark office. When a trademark is registered, no other company can use a name or logo identical or closely resembled to it. However, if a company can prove that they were using a similar name or logo before the trademark was registered, then claims towards copyright infringement may be dropped.

I.P, or Intellectual Property is the result of creativity. For example copyright and trademarking which helps people gain fame or financial benefit from what they invent or create.

“The Elder Scrolls” is a term trademarked by Bethesda as one of their game franchises is named that. The individual words fall under copyright, however, a lawsuit on one of the specific words in the term may not be substantial.

Mojang attempted to make a game titled “Scrolls” and Bethesda followed up on this with a lawsuit which, all in all, failed.

Another lawsuit concerned SEGA’s Space Channel 5, which was originally released in 1999. Source : Wikipedia -

In early 2003, Lady Miss Kier, formerly of the band Deee-Lite, initiated a lawsuit against Sega corporation for allegedly stealing her former persona and using it as the basis of a video game character. The lawsuit was based on accusations of copying her look of knee-high boots, short skirts and a pink ponytail, for Sega's Ulala character design.

Lady Miss Kier (real name is Kierin Kirby) claimed that Sega offered to pay her $16,000 to license her name, image and songs for the game, though she rejected their offer. Kirby later learned that the videogame maker went ahead and used her resemblance anyway, and she decided to initiate the lawsuit. She ultimately lost the suit and a later appeal and was liable to pay Sega's legal fees of $608,000 (reduced from $763,000 requested). In 2008, her single "Groove Is in the Heart" was licensed for use in the Sega video game Samba de Amigo for the Nintendo Wii, ironically appearing in a stage featuring Ulala.

# data[].attributes.body
When a game is advertised, it is illegal for the company advertising to give false information and encourage activities such as gambling. If using aggressive advertising, the company would risk breaching the Consumer Protection act.

# data[].attributes.body
Contracts

Partnership Agreement:

In any venture that involves more than one person, there should be a written agreement between the partners that answers the following questions, at a minimum:

What are the partners bringing into the partnership?;

How are the profits and losses apportioned?;

What is each partner’s ongoing contribution to the partnership?; and

What happens when the partnership dissolves?

Of course, there are many more aspects to a partnership that should be ironed out before beginning work. These questions, however, should be a good starting point for any discussion between potential partners.

Work for Hire Agreement:

Often when making a game, the creator will hire a contractor to make particular assets for the game and without the work for hire hire agreement then they could claim copyright on the assets and gain the royalties that the producer would otherwise have been able to claim, so the contractor uses a Work for Hire agreement to say that the assets are the property of the developer and not the people who made them. This lets the creator make the most money from the royalties.

Legal Release:

A legal release is a contract that terminates a legal liability. They are important as they stop your content from possibly being ruined. An example of this is if you have someone's face in a video who is unwilling to allow that then that whole scene or even the film may need to be removed as no permission was given. In summary they make sure they have someone's permission and will not later reject to the decision.

# data[].attributes.body
It is required by law for a games studio/publisher to display an age rating on their game. This is used to show what age group the developers were aiming the game at. As well as age ratings, the developer is supposed to show what kind of content is included within the game. For example, symbols can be used to represent violence, fear, sexual content etc.

# data[].attributes.body
Consumer protection was an act that was passed in 1987 and is a group of laws that ensure the rights of the consume if treated unfairly it also ensures fair trade and accuracy of information in the marketplace and is design to top companies/business for defrauding.

This meant that gamers/consumers were allowed a full refund within 30 days of buying the game if it proved faulty even for digital products. Steam introduced a ufund system that allows you to have a refund for any reason

# data[].attributes.headline
Professional bodies in the games industry

# data[].attributes.subject
Professional bodies in the games industry

# data[].attributes.headline
Intellectual property rights and license

# data[].attributes.subject
Intellectual property rights and license

# data[].attributes.body
If a games company copyrights an asset from a game, or a name, then no other company is allowed to use that asset/name without permission. A games company could potentially be sued if they breach the Intellectual Copyright Act, by using copyrighted assets from another company.

# data[].attributes.headline
ELSPA (the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publisher' Association)

# data[].attributes.subject
ELSPA (the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publisher' Association)

# data[].attributes.body
This is an organisation what was started in 1989 by video game software publishers in UK. ELSPA was established to be specific and collective identity for country’s video games industry and its membership includes virtually all the major game publishers in the UK.

# data[].attributes.headline
BAFTA (the British Academy of Film and Television Arts)

# data[].attributes.subject
BAFTA (the British Academy of Film and Television Arts)

# data[].attributes.body
BAFTA is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual award shows for excellence in film, television, videogames and animation. BAFTA first recognised video games and other interactive media at its inaugural BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards ceremony in 1998 and then in 2006, BAFTA announced its decision "to give video games equal status with film and television

# data[].attributes.body
WIGI is made up of both female and male professionals,works to promote the inclusion and advancement of women in the global gamesindustry. WIGI promotes diversity in video game development, publishing, media, education and workplaces, based on a fundamental belief that increased equality and camaraderie among genders can make global impacts for superior products, more consumer enjoyment and a stronger gaming industry.

# data[].attributes.body
The IDGA is the professional society for over 10,000 video and computer game developers worldwide. It is a non-profit organisation situated in the United states. Its main mission is “To advance the careers and enhance the lives of game developers.” Anyone who considers his or herself to be a games developer is eligible to join.

# data[].attributes.body
UKIE is the only trade body for the UK’s wider interactive entertainment industry. They exist to champion the interests, needs and positive image of the videogames and interactive entertainment industry whose companies make up their membership.