Do I need permission to use famous cars in my game?

Hi I'm trying to make a racing game, it will feature alot of cars of various automotive manufacturing companies
Do I have to take their permissions to use their cars in my game?

 

Yes you do, and you're probably not going to get it without paying for it.

Just make your own brands and make the cars look different.

 

It will require millions upon millions to use just a single brand for licensing

 

If you're after more details, this might be helpful:
https://www.avvo.com/legal-answers/do-i-need-permission-to-use-car-brands-in-my-mobil-2256328.html

 

It depends... some brands will let you do so even for free, but only if you have a strong development track record or can showcase a high quality prototype that you'll be putting their vehicles in.

Basically they want you to showcase their vehicles in the best light. If you have a low budget game that's not going to look very good, I doubt you'll have any luck.

 

Porche wont happen for you. Gran turismo even bowed out on that front using a Ruff custom instead and leaving the porche name off of it. I think you will have a ton of problems even if you win the lottery and have the cash to pay for licensing. From what I remember reading, gran tourismo jumped through hoops for ages trying to make everyone happy representing cars in a realistic light in comparison to each other and what the manufacturer thought they should compare like. It would be a near impossibility to achieve a driving game full of production model cars and their respective logos/ip without a huge budget, large team, and plenty of patients.

 

GTA doesnt use actual cars, but plenty of em look sorta sorta like actual cars, and they name em kinda funny

and GTA company is RICH AS FFFF!! right?

 

Yes, you absolutely have to get permission for existing brands. This is a matter of copyright, as well as trademark law. In order to "brand" cars in your game, you would need the actual logos and associated branding for those vehicles. And that would put you squarely into the trademark portion of legal discussion. Trademarks are easier to legally defend than copyrights. Which means that you can get into more trouble, with a stronger legal case built against you. It's a big no-no.

Your best bet is to use "spoof" trademarks and names. Instead of "Honda" call your cars "Flonda," or "Xonda," or perhaps "Splonda." And instead of the Honda logo with the H, replace it with a similar logo but with an F, or an X, or an S, instead of the H. There are any number of ways in which you can safely "imply" a brand without using that actual brand. As long as the name isn't the same, and the logo is clearly different than the original, you're fine.

Negotiating actual licensing with one of these companies is possible, but it can also be a real nightmare. They usually expect you to pay them for the right to use their logos. They also frequently will hamstring what you can do with their products in your game. One of the more notorious examples is the Burnout series from Criterion. This is a series of games where cars were frequently crashed into each other, often times with explosive results. Burnout was never able to negotiate official licensing for the cars in their games, because the car companies didn't want to have their cars depicted in a game where they would crash and get destroyed. So Burnout has always had "fake" car brands in their games.

 

Change car name something else.

You can call this car. Oranghini FX1 . Cost nothing.

If you want to use real car names. it's gonna cost money. it's almost like dot com.

 

This is terrible advice because you can VERY easily be legally walloped for using existing car designs. It's not just names you have to worry about, it's design too.

 

It IS a good idea to fudge the design a little bit. You don't want to do a pure copy-paste job on these cars, as appealing as that might be. At the same time, it is a LOT easier to get away with imitating design as opposed to names and logos. The best thing to do with that particular example would be to remove that logo on the tip of the hood, and make a few adjustments to the grill on the front. Possibly alter the headlights a little. They look like they're being done with textures anyway, that would be an easy fix.

Design for a car is much harder to copyright, and much harder to defend in court. Even a slight alteration is usually enough to get around that kind of an issue. Its the same reason why design for a game is near-impossible to copyright. It's much more difficult to measure and quantify. Registered trademarks are much more distinct. Don't just go around making copies of every car. But if you are going to imitate something, the design is safer than the branding.

 

For beginner.... Don't make a graphics look ultra realistic like that.

Don't do this if you selling a game.

This is okay.

 

The problem that Polyphany Digital had in acquiring a license from Porsche was that EA had an exclusive license to Porsche cars in video games. To my knowledge, only Turn 10 was able to sub-license from them. Maybe EA was asking for too much or wouldn't provide a license to GT games. Anyway, that exclusive license has recently ended and we are finally seeing Porsches in more games/sims such as GT Sport, Assetto Corsa, Project Cars and iRacing.

Kunos Simulazioni is a good example of a small developer that managed to get licenses to big brands. I believe that their first sim (Netkar Pro) had at most one licensed car. The rest were made up. Their second sim, Assetto Corsa, has a lot of famous brands including hard to get ones such as Ferrari.

 

NO You simply need permission (that they will give for a lots of money). The best idea is to make your models "inspired" by real cars and change there names completely. You know, Audi A8 to Elegance.

 

The appearance can be protected by Registered Design, not copyright. Some countries also have Unregistered Designs that work the same way as copyright does for most of the world (i.e. it is automatic, but reasonable proof of copying is required).

 

As most of you already answered, you need permissions, it cost a lot and it is difficult

I will try to give a bit more details:
- you need permission from the copyright owner (many cases it’s not the car’s manufacture),
- the permission has different limitations how to use or not to use, including the model quality, violence, damage, police chase, illegal race, etc
- the price depends on the sales, which when we are talking about as indie is not really predictable. Some ask you to pay upfront for the estimated min. value, if they accept your min sales
- not only brands, logos and car names, but designs are under copyright too! You cannot use a car as it is and it goes for other parts like rims as well. Many designs are under patent or copyright and it would take a lot of time to find out which one is free or not and who is the owner etc
- most designs however has a maximum 25 years copyright live-time! Many older car - design only, not the name or brand - can be used without problems, if they are older then 25 years
- if you are thinking on advertising, merchandising your game later, you can easily do it with your own design and brand, but you might need permission and extra budget to do the same with real cars
- you need a legal advisor who can help you to understand what you can or cannot do in your game and you need to keep a track (i.e adding a feature later as street race might not be allowed by the brand)
- the cheapest license we received in the past years as indie license was around $5K upfront, ~100K unit estimated sales, 20-50% share, etc… in short: expensive! but most of them had limitation which does not even fit in our game anyways. (changing parts from another car)
- many indie game is out without licenses, they are thinking they are small and safe, but it’s not always true. While they won’t necessary get noticed, if they start to make real money, that’s when the problem will start up! But then it will be too late!

My advise:
- Make up your own car, start with select a reference model, something realistic, but not necessary 1:1 match. If you want you can use cars older then 25 years, still it’s always better to “customize” it.
- Create or download your model. You can find many free or cheap cars as a good base on 3D model sites. (make sure the model's license allows to use in your game and allows modifications)
- Change/modify the front/rear, lamps, bumpers, roof, doors, make it looks like a different model.
- Came up with a new name, brand, logo and you have your own!

 

Be original, just make your own concept cars and name them as you wish!

 

Given this post is 2 years old I hope OP comes back and shows us his game and what he did with the cars.