copyright, partnership, private-companyA friend and I are currently working on a Board Game, we have an initial Draft of the Rulebook and all the Templates/Counters that the player will need, and we would like to Copyright our Products (chiefly the Book) to stop people infringing on our Idea.
Currently we have not registered ourselves as a Company, so is it possible for us to Copyright our product in both of our names, then transfer the Copyright to the Company if/when we make it?
My real question I suppose is, do we need to register the company, or the copyright first?
You do not need to register copyright. Copyright basically is – from the moment you create something, you own the copyright, no registration need.
What you can do is protect the copyright, register a trademark, or file an over-priced design patent. But most of that is pointless for the most part besides the trademark itself – and even that is borderline pointless for a small gig until you can afford it.
Protecting copyright is as simple as being able to offer proof that yours was first. Print it and snail mail the copy to yourself. Keep it unopened. Done. You can then show that you’ve prior art and that is basically all you need to protect it.
Protecting a trademark requires active involvement and defense. If you repeatedly let others use your trademark, you basically lose your rights to it. And that is why Google will go after any domain with Google or AdWord in it. Prepare to go to court over it.
For the rest, and as blunders already highlighted, you cannot copyright an idea – just the implementation. You can actually patent an idea but it’s super pricey, and you need to show there is no prior art among other things – if memory serves, patenting an idea in the US involves putting forward two original ways to implement it. If you consider it, think $10k+ worth of $500+/hour attorney fees and ask yourself if you’d be willing to put the money forward to actively defend it in court. (Think of Apple’s infamous rounded corners design patent. They could. Could you?)
Bottom line, register your company, and per your other question focus on building a community that wants to buy either your implementation or value-added products around it. And don’t fuss too much over IP – boardgamers hate it anyways.
Think D&D if you will, and analyze all that went wrong with it: they “open-sourced” one edition if I got it right (I stopped playing it when it was still called AD&D), and then went on to produce boat loads of crap in follow-up editions, while they shut down everything of value around it (namely Dungeon Magazine, which provided top-notch scenarios) instead of turning the latter into the focal point of their marketing.
Or Games Workshop for that matter. They’ve the crown for producing over priced miniatures, and they’re despised by even old-time players for doing so, but they sell crap tons of the stuff.
First, you are not able to stop people from infringing on your idea, just the expression of it within the rights you reserve under the law.
As for your question, it does not matter, you can always transfer the rights after registering your company. Meaning if you believe the trouble of transfer the right is not worth it, or that you’d be able register the company before you’re able to reserve your intellectual property (IP) rights in the jurisdictions you’re seeking to claim protection, then register the company first. Otherwise, just go ahead and register your already copyrights if you’re ready to do so, but not able to register the company yet.
As always, you should seek & retain professional legal counsel on any legal matters, including but not limited to copyright & corporate registrations.
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