You would have no legal defenses (other than statute of limitations if they waited to many years to sue you, which they almost certainly would not).
The case against you for liability could only get more clear if you were selling pirated copies of the game itself. This kind of economic activity is precisely what copyright and trademark laws are designed to prevent. What you are proposing to do is blatant infringement of copyright (and trademarks) through the creation of derviative works, on a systematic basis, for profit, without permission, in a manner that does not constitute a parody or satire or any form of fair use. And, you should run away from this idea as fast as you can. So, I'm not saying that this was a stupid or unreasonable question. There is no reasonable way that you could have known just how horribly awful and bad an idea this was without talking to someone familiar with the law. Your video game based merch business plan is a horrible, horrible idea.
No, you may not do this legally without permission in the form of a license from the owners of this intellectual property. NOTE: I somehow missed the "Law Stack Exchange is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for individualized advice from a qualified legal practitioner" part until after clicking post, but if anyone is still able to advise me (educationally, of course) I would suuuuuuuper appreciate it. I anticipate the first comment being "get a lawyer" or "that's illegal", but any kind of elaboration would be amazing. is there a significant difference between this and directly monetizing?
I've found this question and these ones (could this one even apply in any way? I dunno, that's why I'm here), but I'm hoping my case is different enough to not get downvoted into oblivion as I am not saying "I want to sell things that say 'Overwatch' and use the trademarked logo" and I don't know if using the content in this manner constitutes satirical/parody purposes of any kind.Īlternatively, can I make any kind of promotional material (a poster, a video, take free pictures of people and digitally insert images, a free phone app) with likeness/symbols/images from their favourite video games? i.e.
so I'm sorry if this has been answered here before. However I highly doubt I would be able to obtain a "merchandising license", or even get any form of response from a company like EA/BioWare or Nintendo if I inquire.Īm I opening myself up to possible lawsuits? Assuming yes, or that I would receive a "cease and desist" (because even on shaky legal ground I have no doubt a company would toss one at someone to hope they just complied), if I were sued (and leaving competency out of it) is there any sort of legal defense?Ĭlearly I have zero knowledge of parody/fair use/trademark/copyright (other than that the concepts exist), and I cannot afford a lawyer. I would not be using the game logo or title of the game itself, but I would want to use specific images from inside the game (or the silhouette/likeness/"representing symbol" of characters in the game).įor example, a mug with a catch-phrase and logo from Mass Effect that says "I should go." and "get a refill" on opposite sides with the Paragon/Renegade/ Paragade logo on it.Īs another example, maybe a headset with the Zelda franchise's Navi on the earmuffs and "Hey! Listen!" printed across the band. I am setting up an online shop (or, say, a table/kiosk at conventions) to sell merchandise like t-shirts, mugs, etc, and I want to have merchandise with text and images either from or based on popular video game franchises.