I am writing a Chinese-language board game rather similar to Monopoly, but on a Taiwanese topic.
I wonder if anyone has experiences with Taiwanese publishers of board games.
One thing I’m wary of, is copyright: how much do I reveal if I go and meet the publisher? Could it happen they say ‘no’ but two months later I find a game very similar to mine in the shops? How do I prevent this from happening?
Ummm… can’t help you on the publisher part, but I did just buy a Taiwan Monopoly game last week at Toys-R-Us. How close is yours to Monopoly because if you are afraid of the copyright, it has already been done.
[quote=“enzo+”]One thing I’m wary of, is copyright: how much do I reveal if I go and meet the publisher? Could it happen they say ‘no’ but two months later I find a game very similar to mine in the shops? How do I prevent this from happening?[/quote]There are measures you can take to ensure that you can prove copyright on things such as literary works, websites, audio recordings, and computer programs. However, I think that copyrighting a game system could be tricky. As I understand it, you can’t really copyright methods for doing things. You can copyright the instructions for playing a game, but that means you have the copyright for the exact language in which the instructions are given, not for the general idea. And you can copyright things such as graphics which are part of the game. You could also apply for a trademark for the name of the game, though that’s not cheap, and has to be done separately for each country in which you want the trademark protected. I don’t think patent would come into it as a game isn’t really an invention as such.
I may well be wrong. This is based on my very limited understanding of IP law. Perhaps someone who really knows what they’re talking about can clarify the situation.