Copyrights for a commercial project

Hey everyone I just wanted to know if anyone here who has published or in process of creating a commercial game has filed for some sort of copyright, trademark etc? I've gotten to the point in my project where I'm debating if I should get a copyright or not. Thank you

-JAD

You'll more than likely want to file a trademark more than a copyright at this point. Once your game is done, sure, file a registered copyright for the finished product, but I think it's too early for that if it isn't finished :p

If you're 100% on your game title, than filing a trademark right now doesn't hurt.

Ok you have a point there lol. I was also going to start a project thread to get some followers or fans for the game, you think that's a good idea?

Never too early to start getting followers, if that's what you mean. I still don't think you should bother with a copyright yet though. You'll just have to turn around and file again when it's complete. :)

remember to look for the name in the internet yourself first before filing a trademark - if someone has a similiar name trademarked, they may require you to modify or remove your trademark - usually the trademark offices don't check for you, you have to do such things yourself...

IANAL, but here's a few things I do know:

1) Titles can't be copyrighted, but they (or parts of them) can be trademarked, along with character names and other distinct words and phrases. Trademark depends a lot on context: "confusing similar" is I believe the standard. Howard Johnson is a trademarked restaurant name. I can name a character in my game Howard Johnson as no one is going to confuse that with a restaurant. If I put him in a house with that distinctively shaped orange roof, we're getting into dangerous waters. There's 'fair use' style exceptions for things like an 'homage', as well, but now you're getting out of what I do know. Also: protecting your trademark is on you. If you fail to take reasonable steps to protect it (this doesn't mean squashing everybody 'infringing' - you are allowed to explicitly grant permission as well), you can lose your mark.

2) You already own the copyright to your work as soon as you write it. Legally (this is US specific AFAIK), you can't do anything about enforcing it unless you've paid the $35 to the Copyright Office. So you can be in a situation where someone 'illegally' spreading copies of your work acknowledges that you own the copyright, but you can't send him a C&D with any teeth until you've registered your work.

3) If you have more than one thing you want to copyright, you can 'bundle' them. Read the FAQ on the US copyright office's webpage (you should do this anyway - loads of good stuff there). Bundles save you money, and save the copyright office work, so it's a win-win as far as they are concerned.

AFAIK they do not check for prior art, previous copyrights/marks/patents - that's all on you (this explains a lot of the mess the US patent system is in atm: companies applying for patents have ZERO incentive to check for prior art). Thanks to Google, it isn't nearly as hard to check around as it used to be, but don't just do one web search and decide you're good to go: really go out and try to hunt this thing down. Pretend that it exists and you need to contact them for something serious: what would be the steps you would go through before giving up?

Ok Mouser thanks a lot it's much appreciated. I did some research on trademarks and copyrights so everything you said was a refreshment. My worry is that someone copies my work along the way of me creating the project, since it would be wiser to get pay the $35 for the copyright after the final product is done.