Fan-Made Sequel

[legalguy02]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
California

So, a few friends of mine (I'm a college student) and I are designing our own video game. We're designing it to be nearly identical to an existing game from our childhood; specifically, we're making a fan-made sequel for it, with the same name, characters, story, etc. We eventually want to finish the game and make it available for others to download and play; however, being sensitive of trademark and copyright law, we have no intention of profiting from it in any way (even ads) and will put it online for free, and we will go out of our way to emphasize the fact the game is fan-made and unconnected to the original company.

Does this violate any copyright/trademark laws? Will the company that made the original game send us a cease and desist letter or sue us?

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
California

So, a few friends of mine (I'm a college student) and I are designing our own video game. We're designing it to be nearly identical to an existing game from our childhood; specifically, we're making a fan-made sequel for it, with the same name, characters, story, etc. We eventually want to finish the game and make it available for others to download and play; however, being sensitive of trademark and copyright law, we have no intention of profiting from it in any way (even ads) and will put it online for free, and we will go out of our way to emphasize the fact the game is fan-made and unconnected to the original company.

Does this violate any copyright/trademark laws? Will the company that made the original game send us a cease and desist letter or sue us?

Even if you do not intend to profit from the use of another's rights-protected material, the use of the material without authorization from the rights-holder(s) is still infringement, with very few exceptions.

I recommend you contact the copyright and trademark holders prior to developing and marketing your game. If the game is good enough, the rights holder(s) may grant you a license to use the name, characters, etc.

Good luck.

 

[Taxing Matters]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
California

So, a few friends of mine (I'm a college student) and I are designing our own video game. We're designing it to be nearly identical to an existing game from our childhood; specifically, we're making a fan-made sequel for it, with the same name, characters, story, etc. We eventually want to finish the game and make it available for others to download and play; however, being sensitive of trademark and copyright law, we have no intention of profiting from it in any way (even ads) and will put it online for free, and we will go out of our way to emphasize the fact the game is fan-made and unconnected to the original company.

Does this violate any copyright/trademark laws? Will the company that made the original game send us a cease and desist letter or sue us?

Even freely available fan made games will likely result in trademark and/or copyright violations. And computer gaming companies are vigorous about enforcing their marks. There is a very popular MMORPG game for which some fans made private servers to host classic or other older versions of the game, many of them free to play. The gaming company holding the trademarks and copyrights went after those private servers, eventually resorting to a lawsuit in one case, to force them to shut down. It had to do that because if they do not enforce their trademarks and copyrights they lose control over them, and those rights are very valuable. Before you invest much time and money into this project you really need to see about contacting the holders of the rights in the game you wish to emulate to get permission or risk facing legal problems later on.

 

[quincy]

This is a topic that comes up with some frequency on this forum.

Here is a link to the first archived thread I saw that has related content (and links that might work). The following thread adds patent to the game mix.

https://forum.freeadvice.com/copyrights-trademarks-39/copyright-trademark-patent-infringement-609886.html