Mainly weapons and armors. So copyright laws protect against physical products too? I was under the impression that patents covered that area. Is it legal to produce them if there are slight variations in design or shape?
I purposely said "rights-protected" instead of "copyright-protected" because you have a lot of intellectual property rights that can be involved when wanting to work with props. These rights
can include patent rights, but also trademark rights and copyrights.
There can be the need to acquire permission (generally granted in the form of a license) from the holder of any patent rights, any trademark rights and any copyrights in order to create real functional props from any video game or fictional work. It is entirely possible that these rights are held by different people or entities, so many licenses may need to be negotiated.
You tend to have the greatest complications when trying to create a prop that is closely identified with the video game or fictional work. For example, you can run into IP issues with light sabers and Batmobiles and items like these that, upon seeing the item, connects a consumer to a specific work. These are called "key art" items. Even slight variations or modifications in the original can infringe on rights.
Here is where knowing the
specifics of what you want to use becomes necessary - and, unfortunately, this forum is not set-up to handle the specifics of any poster's legal concerns. You will need to sit down with an IP professional in your area for a personal review.
