My crazy idea. Will this work?

[TheRook]

Home state: Florida

First, let me explain what an MMORPG is. MMORPG stands for Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing game. If you play video games and keep up on the latest news, you may have heard of this new phenomena. Basically, people buy the game, and then pay a monthly fee to login to the servers.

Those that play these games are fanatical about them. In Korea, one of their MMORPG's has over 1 million subscribers. The problem is, none of these MMORPG's has got it right yet. What "it" is is subject to great debate. However, I think I have the answer that many people are looking for. The problem is, an MMORPG can take an esitmated 15 million dollars to get started, but it's not the money that I am writing here about. I will worry about getting the investor later. My goal is to write a Design Document. The DD would explain in great detail about how the MMORPG would be laid out. It's kind of the blueprint for the project. Now, I could do this by myself, but it's a big task, and I'm not knowledgable in all the aspects. So here is my plan.

I would find someone who is knowlegable in each of the areas that I am not. We would form a team, and together write the plan. We would all be full partners in this project, so if anything came of it, we would all benefit the same. When the project was done, we could either sell the idea, or find venture capital, and build it ourselves.

I put the plan into action, and recieved about 30 responses. I have people who are experts in the field of business, programming, computer graphics etc. What we don't have is any good legal assistance. before we can even begin to start putting our ideas on paper, we need to have a business plan in place. We need to know what legalities are involved with what we are doing.

I have a few questions that will help us get started, if you don't mind.


1) Is this idea legal? To me, it's like forming a band. All the contributers are the musicians, and we are writing a song (design document), that we hope a record company (investor) will put the money up for.

2) I have been reading about copyrights and patents, but I'm not sure which one covers this design document we hope to create. I know finished software is usually copyrighted, but what covers the design ideas for that software?

3) Who owns the finished document? If I contribute 30% to the document, and someone else contributes 5%, is his share the same as mine? Is there some legal precedent for this?

4) What if someone leaves in the middle of the project? Does he forfeit what he's put into it?

5) I know at some point, we will require the services of an attorney. I just get the feeling that this will be prohibitively expensive. I was hoping to keep the design part of this process money free. Is it possible to exchange a share of the company to a lawyer for his legal services? Or is there some kind of legal red tape that prevents this arrangement?

6) Lastly, I live in Florida, many of the others live in other states and some in other countries. We are planning on doing the design over the net, but what kind of ramifications does our living in different locations bring us?

Thank you, in advance, for you assistance.

Marc Vadnais

 

[aaronmorin]

M.V.

1. I'm a bit unclear as to your question about legality of the idea (i.e. what exactly is the idea?). The concept of bringing together several people to design something is legal. The concept of improving on a business design is legal. The concept of making money is legal. Selling drugs is illegal, injuring a person is illegal, breaking the law is illegal. You should be ok with your idea, but you should also be careful to protect your own interests.

2. Copyright or Patent?
Copyright:
A copyright generally protects (looslely) your written material from unpermitted reproduction; it does not protect you from having other people steal your ideas.

Example: If you write a book (or a program design) and you copyright it, others are not "supposed" to copy it. Realize, however, most people in this world will freely take a book to a photocopier and reproduce it at will. It is illegal, but who will enforce it. Example 2: If you write a script for a movie and copyright it, you are presumably protected from someone else producing that same movie. However, with certain changes an infringer may get away with stealing your idea (copyrighted or not).

The point is, copyright is a very loose protection and if your goal is to protect your "idea" (i.e. the design improvement), you had best keep it a secret and only tell your partners. If someone else likes your idea enough, they will find a way to beat you to it.

To learn more about copyright, chick out this site: http://www.law.seattleu.edu/information/startingpoints/copyright.html

Patents
If you are interested in protecting your "idea" from others, you must keep it secret. If you want to get a legal monopoly on your invention for 20 years giving you exclusive rights to sell your idea(and if it meets certain requirements for filing) you want a patent. Not knowing enough about what you are doing, I cannot tell you, but you can usually meet with a patent attorney without much cost (perhaps free) to determine if your idea is patentable. Alternatively, you can read up on patent requirements; but it is a specialized area, and patent lawyers must past an additional exam to entitle them to practice in patent court. Try the PTO: http://www.uspto.gov/

3. Ownership of the final document/work product/design?
The area of contract law sets forth rules pertaining to how an agreement between individuals is handled if a dispute arises. A contract allows you to make an agreement (a contract) with another person (or company) to do just about anything that is not illegal (as long as the terms are freely agreed to and are not "unconscionable").

In your contract, you can agree to anything from what time you and your partners will brush their teeth, to who has a right to write off the losses from your business, to who contributes what to the business, to what percentage of ownership/interest each party will have, to what happens if someone should leave before the deal is finished, to when the deal is considered finished, to the fact that everyone agrees to keep absolutely quiet about the work unitil it is complete, to what applicable law shall apply if a dispute arises, to what court the parties agree to settle their disputes in if one should arise (alternatively you can agree to resolve your disputes with an arbitrator - which precludes expensive attorney costs and is sometimes cheaper).

Lawyers are trained to think about very important concepts to include in a contract. I highly recommend having a lawyer review your final contract before you make an agreement with anyone else.

4. Someone leaves in the middle of the project?
See response in #3

5. Interest to the attorney?
Honestly, I am not sure. It depends on the laws in Florida, but it may be possible to pay the attorney with interest in the profits, but you will have to spend a lot of time finding the right attorney who is willing (if it is legal in your state).

6. Parties from different states (countries)?
See response in #3. If they freely sign a contract with you, they agree to the terms of that contract.

Good Luck on your project, and good luck finding a venture capitalist - they're out there!
AAM

 

[TheRook]

Thank You

Thank You Aaron

These answers will help start us in the right direction. Everything is looking good so far. Your answers to question 3 are especially helpful.

Thanks for taking the time to answer.

Marc