IP rights question

[kaliban]

Hi

Along the years playing Battletech, I have made my own unit designs (mainly combat vehicles) and I am putting this together, maybe to publish it in some moment (like the old Technical Readouts). I also created some background for them during the Succession Wars more specifically in House Marik.

What can I do and what I cannot do to not avoid IP rights infringements? Who do I get guidance on that?

I hope I have posted in the correct place

 

 

[kaliban]

seems like nobody will reply ...

[Brent Evans]

Hi kaliban, thank you for your patience.  Understandably the current Kickstarter has been absorbing every ounce of our bandwidth but I am happy now to post a quick reply. :0)

BattleTech is such a well loved property that our fans have a long tradition of fleshing out their own content and building upon it to truly epic proportions over time.  That's a good measure of any healthy game property.  And we all totally enjoy the fanbase's continued "fan project" efforts.  By all means - as a fan - feel free to put together your projects and share them with the community.  There are simple straight forward rules to follow and you'll be just fine.  Here are the keys to a fan project:

1.  Don't monetize it in any way.  Creating fan-work and sharing it with friends or community is totally fine.  Charging money for it in any way is instantly a violation of copyright (from accepting donations to bartering in trade for other items of value.)  So long as you're not creating a business model or charging anything, you are safe.

2.  Clearly indicate that this is a fan creation and the content it not official canon.  Just go ahead and add a disclaimer and let your fellow fans enjoy it for being a great fan project.  So long as you don't present your creation as something official, you'll be fine.

3.  Acknowledge the rights are owned by Topps.  This is actually quite easy because you can just copy the legal text from the bottom of all the CGL BattleTech web pages: "Classic BattleTech, BattleTech, BattleMech, ‘Mech, and MechWarrior are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of The Topps Company, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries."   If you actually want to post your fan creation disclaimer below this text that would be a great place for it.

I hope that helps answer your question kaliban.  Best of luck to you on your project!

Brent
Senior Art Director & BattleTech Line Developer
Catalyst Game Labs

[kaliban]

Hi kaliban, thank you for your patience.  Understandably the current Kickstarter has been absorbing every ounce of our bandwidth but I am happy now to post a quick reply. :0)

BattleTech is such a well loved property that our fans have a long tradition of fleshing out their own content and building upon it to truly epic proportions over time.  That's a good measure of any healthy game property.  And we all totally enjoy the fanbase's continued "fan project" efforts.  By all means - as a fan - feel free to put together your projects and share them with the community.  There are simple straight forward rules to follow and you'll be just fine.  Here are the keys to a fan project:

1.  Don't monetize it in any way.  Creating fan-work and sharing it with friends or community is totally fine.  Charging money for it in any way is instantly a violation of copyright (from accepting donations to bartering in trade for other items of value.)  So long as you're not creating a business model or charging anything, you are safe.

2.  Clearly indicate that this is a fan creation and the content it not official canon.  Just go ahead and add a disclaimer and let your fellow fans enjoy it for being a great fan project.  So long as you don't present your creation as something official, you'll be fine.

3.  Acknowledge the rights are owned by Topps.  This is actually quite easy because you can just copy the legal text from the bottom of all the CGL BattleTech web pages: "Classic BattleTech, BattleTech, BattleMech, ‘Mech, and MechWarrior are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of The Topps Company, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries."   If you actually want to post your fan creation disclaimer below this text that would be a great place for it.

I hope that helps answer your question kaliban.  Best of luck to you on your project!

Brent
Senior Art Director & BattleTech Line Developer
Catalyst Game Labs

Thanks for the reply. I am supporting the kickstarter project, by the way. Congrats for that.