Completely Missing Game Copyrights and Trademarks

[Arnoxthe1]

A little while ago, I remembered a really old and obscure game. It was called AMOK [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amok_%28video_game%29] and was made by Lemon and published by Scavenger, Inc. for the Saturn and PC way back in 1997. It was a rather fun arcadey third-person mech game that I really loved when I was really young. I still think it is entertaining even today when I gave it another run-through for nostalgia's sake. I especially loved the soundtrack that was done by Jesper Kyd back before he became the famous guy he is today, though I realize now that it was a game that was hampered by bad controls, somewhat frustrating mission objectives and a couple other annoyances.

But anyway, I began to think about this game and came to the firm conclusion that a full remake would be EXACTLY what it needs. But then I thought about who the heck now owns the copyright and trademarks to this game. I did a search on AMOK at the US Patents and Trademarks website. Found absolutely nothing. Did another search at the US Copyright website. Found absolutely nothing there as well.

The only thing left that I could think of would be to contact the original devs but they've all went on to other game studios of course and are now rather hard to contact I bet. But then, according to government records, the game doesn't even exist. The game hasn't even been MENTIONED in any sort of news since the date it was released. (17 years) And since it's really obscure, no one ever talks about it.

So my question is, if I were to file a copyright and/or a trademark, do you think it would get disputed? Would the people who dispute it have any legal basis to do so? Would they even bother to dispute something that is now 17 years old and the rights completely forgotten and filed away into some old, decrepit corporate filing cabinet that haven't been looked at for just as long? :\

 

[TheIceQueen]

I'm no expert on any of this, but I do know a few things. Like, how a copyright filed after the beginning of 1978 requires no renewal and lasts for the span of the author/creator's life +70 years before finally expiring and entering the public domain (though, this can often be circumvented, I do believe, by filing for a trademark, which can be renewed in perpetuity so long as it's in use).

I do not know, however, what the case would be if there's a missing copyright. And this is particularly made difficult by both the publisher and developer being defunct and scattered into the winds. Nor have I been able to find any helpful information on what happens when a copyright goes missing. The closest I get is expired, but those aren't the same situations.

Although, I assume to make a copyright claim, you would have to provide some sort of tangible work. Even copyright "trolls" have to provide some sort of work when filing for protection, otherwise there's nothing to protect, and if you didn't work on AMOK or haven't worked on anything new with regards to AMOK, it's hard to say that you need to protect something that doesn't exist or you didn't create.

Still, it's an interesting question and I'm not entirely sure what the answer is, both because of my lack of knowledge as to the finer points of copyrights and at the seeming lack of situation when a copyright goes missing, though a copyright lawyer might have better luck than you in finding it. My father deals with those on a regular basis for his job and, from how it sounded when he was telling me about it, it sounds as though their database and searching tools is a bit more robust.

 

[Requia]

I'm no expert on any of this, but I do know a few things. Like, how a copyright filed after the beginning of 1978 requires no renewal and lasts for the span of the author/creator's life +70 years before finally expiring and entering the public domain (though, this can often be circumvented, I do believe, by filing for a trademark, which can be renewed in perpetuity so long as it's in use).

This is true in cases where a natural person holds the copyright, when a legal person holds it (probably the case here) it's a flat 90 years in the US, 70 in some other countries. Trademark does not cover the same things as copyright, all extending the trademark would do is require that derivative works not carry the same name, so you'll never be able to make a 'Star Wars' movie but in 50 years[footnote]or possibly shortly after the heat death of the universe of congress keeps extending the term[/footnote] or so you can remake Star Wars and call it 'Space Rebellion'.

OP: You'd have to figure out if Lemon or Scavenger held the copyright (assuming they were separate entities), and then figure out who owns the remains (there was apparently a bankruptcy sale). If you can't this is known as an orphaned work and is basically an unsolvable problem in modern copyright law, the work is going to remain undistributable for the full 90.

Trademark has a much saner scheme however, that expires three years after the last time the trademark was used in commerce, and since there's no official filing with the USPTO the penalties for unknowingly violating the trademark if it's still in use and you can't find it are minimal.

Now as to remaking the game, that doesn't necessarily involve copyright at all. You aren't going to reuse code or art assets from a 90s game unless you want it to look like a 90s game, and gameplay mechanics aren't covered (see: every WoW clone ever). That only leaves story elements, I don't know how much AMOK had, but you can always label it a 'spiritual successor to AMOK' and do what's known as filing off the serial numbers, remove references to non real world places, change the names around, basically get creative, everything is derivative from something else anyway (think of the standard fantasy game setting vs Lord of the Rings, its halflings instead of hobbits, it's never called Middle Earth, etc, but you still have elves and dwarves and glorified fetch quests that happen to save the world).

 

[Something Amyss]

But anyway, I began to think about this game and came to the firm conclusion that a full remake would be EXACTLY what it needs. But then I thought about who the heck now owns the copyright and trademarks to this game. I did a search on AMOK at the US Patents and Trademarks website. Found absolutely nothing. Did another search at the US Copyright website. Found absolutely nothing there as well.

Copyright is opt out in the states, not opt in. While filing copyright offers additional protection, it's in no way required. And a trademark search might well not come up on anything, given the typsetting of the name.

Either way, this doesn't mean public domain or the right to use should be assumed.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

OP: You'd have to figure out if Lemon or Scavenger held the copyright (assuming they were separate entities), and then figure out who owns the remains (there was apparently a bankruptcy sale). If you can't this is known as an orphaned work and is basically an unsolvable problem in modern copyright law, the work is going to remain undistributable for the full 90.

Trademark has a much saner scheme however, that expires three years after the last time the trademark was used in commerce, and since there's no official filing with the USPTO the penalties for unknowingly violating the trademark if it's still in use and you can't find it are minimal.

Now as to remaking the game, that doesn't necessarily involve copyright at all. You aren't going to reuse code or art assets from a 90s game unless you want it to look like a 90s game, and gameplay mechanics aren't covered (see: every WoW clone ever). That only leaves story elements, I don't know how much AMOK had, but you can always label it a 'spiritual successor to AMOK' and do what's known as filing off the serial numbers, remove references to non real world places, change the names around, basically get creative, everything is derivative from something else anyway (think of the standard fantasy game setting vs Lord of the Rings, its halflings instead of hobbits, it's never called Middle Earth, etc, but you still have elves and dwarves and glorified fetch quests that happen to save the world).

Yeah, I think that's what I'm gonna have to do. I'd REALLY like permission to use the name and it's universe though. (what little universe there is anyway)

I did some searching and found all 3 developers from Lemon.

The first one is Soren Hannibal [http://www.linkedin.com/in/sorenhannibal] He's currently working on Project Spark as the Engine Tech Director. Interesting...

The other two are Jacob Andersen [http://www.heroesandgenerals.com/community/4442/featured-developer-jacob-andersen-reto-redbjarne] and Martin Pollas [http://www.heroesandgenerals.com/community/2787/featured-developer-martin-munk-pollas-reto-lord] who both went on form Reto-Moto and are now supporting a game called Heroes and Generals.

If anyone of them owned the copyright, it would probably be Soren since he's still in the US. However, if it went with Scavenger... Then I'm pretty sure it's lost to the corporate winds. *ugh* Hopefully not.