A crash course in understanding trademarks | GDC 2022
Marie Dealessandri
Features Editor
Wednesday 30th March 2022
Sheridans
At GDC last week, Sheridans' games lawyer Tim Repa-Davies took a deep dive into publishing contracts.
A follow up to a GDC 2021 talk on the same theme, his presentation entitled 'What's wrong with your publishing contract?' covered everything from negotiations, licensing, payment terms, publishers' obligations, warranties, and more.
Most of the advice he shared can also be found in a series of articles called 'Contract Killers' that he published on his Linkedin page.
But Repa-Davies also discussed IP, and more particularly how to protect yours, particularly in the context of signing a publishing deal, with an entire section dedicated to trademarks. It's a topic GamesIndustry.biz recently touched upon in an article about clone culture and its continuous impact on indie developers.
So how do trademarks actually work? What do they encompass? Should you file for a trademark yourself or let your publisher do it? What are the pros and cons? Tim Repa-Davies answered all these questions and more in his GDC talk.
Before getting into the heart of the topic, Repa-Davies recommended those who want a "good IP summary" to watch lawyer Christopher Reid's talks from previous GDC editions. He then moved on to giving a definition of what a trademark is.
"A trademark is anything that identifies goods and services of one business to that of another," he explained. "In the UK, the US and elsewhere, trademark rights can be both registered -- that's normally where you get the R in the little circle ® -- or unregistered and that's where you might see the little ™ sign on words, logos, and various other things that are capable of graphic representation.
Sheridans' Tim Repa-Davies
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