Stock Market data copyrights - game development

[wajrak]

Hi,

I am doing a research for project I am working on right now that involves some stock market data. Finding and obtaining such data, turned out to be easier than expected but copyright question risen with it as well. So the big question here is:

Can I use companies names and stock data plus values without infringing companies copyrights?

I don't have much experience in developing games and I would like to avoid being sued yet upon the research I haven't found any questions regarding stock market itself. The only reason why I am asking this is that I am well aware of brand protection etc. But to me it seems that when company goes public, same goes for it's data(?).
I would like to avoid things like renaming Sony to Pony or Zony, I am also not planning to fiddle with data itself (using real historical stock prices and trends).

There are plenty games/sites using real data and real company names and the whole thing is called "mock stock" widely used for practising and training.

Does anyone have any insights on the matter?
Thanks in advance for your time.

 

[quincy]

Hi,

I am doing a research for project I am working on right now that involves some stock market data. Finding and obtaining such data, turned out to be easier than expected but copyright question risen with it as well. So the big question here is:

Can I use companies names and stock data plus values without infringing companies copyrights?

I don't have much experience in developing games and I would like to avoid being sued yet upon the research I haven't found any questions regarding stock market itself. The only reason why I am asking this is that I am well aware of brand protection etc. But to me it seems that when company goes public, same goes for it's data(?).
I would like to avoid things like renaming Sony to Pony or Zony, I am also not planning to fiddle with data itself (using real historical stock prices and trends).

There are plenty games/sites using real data and real company names and the whole thing is called "mock stock" widely used for practising and training.

Does anyone have any insights on the matter?
Thanks in advance for your time.

What is the name of your state or, if not in the US, what is the name of your country?

Facts are not protectable under copyright laws so you are free to use whatever facts you find. Stock prices are facts.

What is protectable intellectual property will be company trademarks (names, logos..) and can also be the specific data used by others (selection, arrangement, charts, graphs...). And there can be some protection given to trend-analysis.

You should have your particular game plans personally reviewed by an IP professional in your area before going public with your game. What you are proposing is doable but, whenever you are using real names of companies, you are handling valuable reputations.
Good luck.