copyrightI am a board game designer and I am thinking of commercializing my game which has been prototyped in various versions, each themed using a famous movie or novel such as Lord of he Rings, Game of Thrones, Dune etc.
How do I go about obtaining licenses to use these themes commercially? Where do I start? How does it work?
Expanding on Jeff’s answer, you need to research who the right owners are and contact them. Worry not, it’s pretty easy to do. Basically google them and ask the legal team if their email is around, else fallback to support or other as you prompt for the legal department for your IP purchasing enquiry.
They’ll invariably get back to you if you ask about the cost of using their materials. It’s their job to ensure anyone who does ends up paying them a check with many more zeros than they’d like.
Expanding further on that and on what Neil said, do not expect the check they ask you to have less than many zeros. Like five, six, more… Basically a lot more zeros than you’ll be comfortable with as a lone board game designer.
Hence both of their advice to drop it for now and try to make ends meet without needing it.
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