Making a board game expansion for personal use/for use by friends.

[wordnerdchick]

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

I am wondering about the legality of making an expansion to the board game Quelf. This would not be something I sell, I know that is illegal, but rather something made for personal use and use with friends.

I think personal use is probably legal but I would also like to post it as a free pdf or word document for anyone to use. This would not entail copying the physical cards or the board itself. I would be simply making cards that go with the categories of the game that people would play using the original game board, after printing my cards themselves.

 

[quincy]

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

I am wondering about the legality of making an expansion to the board game Quelf. This would not be something I sell, I know that is illegal, but rather something made for personal use and use with friends.

I think personal use is probably legal but I would also like to post it as a free pdf or word document for anyone to use. This would not entail copying the physical cards or the board itself. I would be simply making cards that go with the categories of the game that people would play using the original game board, after printing my cards themselves.

When you purchased the game Quelf, you purchased the right to do anything with that game that you wanted to except infringe on the trademark rights and the copyrights of the Quelf publishers, designers and artist.

All of the original and creative elements of the game are automatically copyrighted. A copyright holder has the exclusive right to reproduce (copy) the work, prepare derivatives of the work, distribute copies of the work and perform or display the work.

Trademarks are the distinctive words (or phrases, logos, graphics, symbols, slogans) that are used to identify a product (or service) and the origin of the product (or service).

You can create for the game your own game cards using your own characters and card designs for personal use with your friends. No one is going to be knocking on your door to serve you with any notice of infringement.

However, you cannot use outside of your personal use the Quelf characters or the Quelf designs or the name "Quelf" (except in a descriptive sense*). These are all rights-protected.

You also cannot expand the board game with additional cards to sell or give away to the public. The creating and marketing of additional cards for the game would be part of the exclusive rights belonging to the game creators.

You can contact the publishers of Quelf if you wish to seek permission to market your cards to go with their game. Here is a link to Quelf's terms and conditions, with a "contact us" link at the bottom of the page: http://www.quelf.com/terms-and-conditions


*there are other exceptions