IP rights and their importance in the game industry

What is meant by IP?

Intellectual property rights denote the legal ownership of creations to their creators. This includes trademarks, patents, registered designs, and copyright.

Why are IP rights important in the game development industry?

Intellectual property rights matter in the game development industry as the game development industry is a creative industry. This means that creation and creative development are core aspects of working successfully in the game development industry. These creations must be protected as, otherwise, they could easily be stolen. Considering that game development is typically a long and expensive process, especially for AAA games, it would be devastating (both financially and emotionally) if a creative aspect were to be stolen. Creative aspects which are stolen before the original game is fully published can lead to loss of sales, while creative aspects which are stolen after games have been published unfairly benefit from the original game’s success. Intellectual property rights exist to provide this protection to creators.

Furthermore, intellectual property rights are important as they stop ideas and characters from being distorted in ways which might be off putting or cause boycotting of the original project. For example, a company may develop a child friendly game which is aimed towards young children. If this concept were to be copied and distorted, then this would negatively impact parents’ opinions about the original version. If a version of the game were to include violence and adult content, then suddenly the parent may not want their child to have themed bedsheets from the original. These distortions can change public opinion. A similar (although legal) example may be seen through the recent development of the Winnie the Pooh horror movie ‘Blood and Honey’.

Historic cases of intellectual property disputes in the game development industry

Although, intellectual property rights are actively in place, they are not always respected. Furthermore, it may be arguable whether or not intellectual property rights have been breached. When this happens the result is settled through a legal dispute.

K C Munchkin versus Pac-man

Pac-man was a game that took the world by storm on its release in 1980. By 1982 400,000 Pac-man arcade cabinets had been sold in America. As such, it was clearly a prime target for rival companies to publish copycat titles. In November 1981 Atari filled a lawsuit against North American Philips for their copyright infringement of Pac-man through their title K C Munchkin. From the pictures below it should be easy to see why Atari were upset about the release of this game, since the two titles are incredibly similar both in design and in content.

Both titles feature a maze which is full of dots which must be eaten by the player character and ghost like characters which patrol the maze hunting for the player character.

In March 1982, the Court of Appeals ruled that K C Munchkin was “substantially similar” to Pac-Man and as a result K C Munchkin was banned from further retail sale.

Does IP stifle creativity in the game development industry?

In one sense intellectual property rights may be seen to stifle creativity in the game development industry. One argument in favour of this view is that registered designs under intellectual property rights may be fairly generic (although simple shapes cannot be registered – such as a triangle). This leads to less available options for creativity, especially as the number of registered designs increases. Furthermore, there may be instances where copyright designs are accidentally violated, where the creator of some new design was not aware that they had incorporated any copyright material. The problem here is that incorporation of registered designs, even if these designs are part of a larger original whole, is an infringement of copyright. Perhaps this is too extreme.

Another argument may be that intellectual property rights stifle the creativity of fans for a franchise. For example, many fan games are made for the Pokémon series and these games are often removed and their creators are issued warnings over the copyright content. In some sense this also seems quite extreme, as most of the time these games are made by devoted fans who are not selling anything or trying to pass it off as anything other than a fan game. Furthermore, developing these types of fan games is often an entry level rite of passage for new developers, who have become inspired by existing works.

However, in my opinion intellectual property rights are essential to the success of the game development industry. I believe that the existence of intellectual property rights inspires creativity as it forces game developers to come up with new ideas – as opposed to endlessly recycling existing ideas. Furthermore, it provides much needed protection for existing ideas. This also helps the creative process since game developers will be motivated to create ideas and assets knowing that they will be legally attributed to their company and that they will be able to claim rightful ownership over their designs.