Re: board game question

On Thu, Sep 09, 1999, Marty Cauley <mcauley[_at_]sfrep.com> wrote:
>
> I am a complete novice to copyrights, patents, and trademarks. I
> created a board game based on something that my family has played for
> years. We recently discovered that it is also being played in other
> parts of the country under the same name with home made game boards.
>
> 1. How can I find out if the game is copyrighted?
> 2. How can I find out if the name is a trademark?
> 3. Also, how could I go about getting the trademarked and the
> game copyrighted?
> 4. Finally, do you have a suggestion as to how I would market the
> game. I have created various designs of it on computer.

If you created the board game and fixed it in a tangible medium -- a board, and printed instructions or cards, markers, whatever -- then it IS "copyrighted", by you. If you based it on a preexisting game (which it sounds as if you did), your best bet is to search the US Trademark Database at <http://www.uspto.gov/> to determine if the name of that game is registered. If it is, you will also learn when it was registered, who owns it, and how long it has been in use. You will then know if someone other than you has a prior right to the name. If it doesn't appear, the name may still be someone's common law trademark, without having ever been applied for registration. This is harder to find out. It is also harder to find out if there is a copyright registration on the books for the game, since searching the Library of Congress Copyright Register is a little trickier, and often more misleading, than searching the Trademark Register.

You should also be advised that it is possible to obtain a patent on a board game -- provided, of course, that the statutory requirements are met.

This sounds like a big (and complex) enough issue that you should spring for a couple hundred bucks and get an hour or so of a good intellectual attorney's time to get some reliable guidance on these issues.

Bob

Robert C. Cumbow
> Graham & Dunn, P.C.
> 1420 Fifth Avenue, 33rd Floor
> Seattle, Washington 98101-2390
> Phone: 206-340-9619
> Fax: 206-340-9599
> E-mail: rcumbow[_at_]grahamdunn.com
> Website: http://www.grahamdunn.com/
Received on Fri Sep 10 1999 - 17:06:57 GMT