legal, intellectual-property, copyright, ideaI am a writer and board game designer, and intend to launch crowdfunding campaigns in the near future. For both categories, I intend to self-publish and produce the products I deliver by myself or through third parties.
If, say, I write a book myself, and hence I own the IP, would I need additional permissions to self-publish? For example, the book I publish will need to have a font type, a layout, and probably some colors as well for the cover design. Therefore, I am worried about using a font like ‘Times New Roman’ and that becoming a problem because while I own the book’s IP, I did not create the font and color it was published in. (I.e. I do not own the IP of the font and color.)
Also, say, I distribute PDFs of my book through kickstarter, do I need to take permission from Adobe?
The confusion as a result of not knowing the correct permissions becomes more complicated with board game production, as in addition to fonts and colors there are ideas and mechanics that I did not completely create (even though the game as a whole is original).
Does anybody know the potential legal permissions I would need in this context?
First off: I am not an attorney, and this is not legal advice! That said, here are a few points that may help you.
The simple answer is: yes. So, be careful. That said, if you ARE careful, you can often 'get' the permissions by default by selecting fonts, etc. that are commercially licensed to the public for free (e.g. GPL, CC, etc.)
In general, the fonts supplied with Microsoft products may not be modified, copied or redistributed. Many of the fonts that come with Microsoft products are also available directly from their original creators. Look at the trademark and copyright notices within each font file to determine who to contact for additional end user, ISV or OEM licenses.
They have more information at their Typography website.
That said, many font websites have 'open source' fonts free to use. 3 cautions there: 1) avoid 'font swiper' sites that just steal fonts from elsewhere, 2) make sure that the 'free to use' license includes COMMERCIAL use, and 3) check whether attribution is required and act accordingly.
Colors: Typically, colors aren't copyrightable because they aren't novel. They may, however, be trademarked in a specific industry / for a specific product/service set. For more explanation of this idea, see here.
PDF is an open standard. Adobe owns the rights to their software to make a document following that standard. You own the rights to that particular content. So the main issue there would be making sure you have a legal copy of the Adobe software.
'Ideas,' per se, are not protectable, only 'tangible' expressions / reductions to practice of those ideas. Novel expressions may be protectable, or re-expressions of something already in the public domain are likely not protectable - by you or someone else.
Furthermore most copyright/patent/trademark etc claims, however, are more difficult to enforce unless you knew/should-have-known that they existed (typically fulfilled by 'giving notice' in the form of a trademark or patent notice .. see Patent Pending, AIPLA, and Stanford). Copyright notices are not required - copyrights stand by default of being created. If you do your best to find out and made an accident, you may have to cease-and-desist later, but you may be able to avoid infringement penalties. That being said, again, BE CAREFUL.
These are general points, but I hope they help as you try to understand the wonderful world of intellectual property (IP). It looks like you have a good start at grasping the relevant areas to watch.
SRDC has great advice, but see a competent attorney before you actually publish. A couple dollars spent upfront can save you many dollars later.
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