Will I need licenses?

Hi i'm planning on making a game that involve 3d tanks. Will I need a license for the tanks? since i'm planning on to get them high quality models using 3ds max.

If so then ill have to contact BAE or something which will be nerve racking.

 

EA cuts ties with gun makers

Since the top dog stopped doing it, I think you got nothing to worry about.

 

Oh I heard about that and I hope I don't have anything to worry about.

 

I wouldn't be so sure about that. EA has almost infinite resources for legal advice and lawyers, which lowers anyone's chance to win a case and scares away potential lawsuits. Activision, sport games, and racing games all license there trademarks included; There is a reason and that is because lawsuits have been filed over things like this.

I had a friend who was making a Lego game and received a cease or desist letter, or a lawsuit would be filed. Not sure if its a bluff but it wasn't worth the risk.

My advice would to do a parody or just make up cool names, only the hardcore tank fans will care whether you have "real" tanks in your game.

~lanDog

 

Except they never "stopped" doing it because they never started in the first place.

 

A difference between and a gun is that lego is a company that makes games/toys with the brand, and they don't want anyone using there brand without a proper license. Now it's different because guns types are owned but the model you create is not there's and using the name would be the same as a book saying it.

 

Lego has a nasty habit of suing anyone that makes anything that resembles there building blocks but in 2010 they lost a ruling in the European court that says they can not trademark geometric shapes see here basically if you do not advertise it as lego and merely as a blocks using your own name they can not do much other than threaten and even if they do all you have to do is report that legal firm to what ever regulatory body controls them for making a false taken down notices. Also as lego themselves are in the video game market now as well using false take down notices to other game companies could be seen as an anti competitive attack on there competition no matter how small or large they are report them to there regulatory body as well. Unless your friend was advertising it as a LEGO game rather than a block game, all they need to do is remove any reference to lego from the game and they can not do anything.

 

Going back to the OP. Design your own tanks, there's nothing wrong with that.

 

Or how about something else instead of tanks......like errr dinosaurs...with guns.....yea something like this hmmm world of dinosaurs.....that's taken so how about world of dinowars thats free.

Basically world of tanks but with dinosaurs, with guns.

I would play that

 

I think they only reason they will get away with this is because of gun attacks that have been occuring. They are just trying to distance themselves.

You wont just be able to take all copyrighted/trademarked/whatevers and just start using there names because EA decided to stop paying for the use of gun names...

I would just make up my own names if I was you. Whats the benefit of naming them after the real deal?

 

Unless you have a written and signed agreement with the tank manufacturers, don't risk it.
Rather just make your own tanks and call them something else by name.
Game development is hard/costly enough, you don't want all your hard work ruined by a lawsuit.

 

You do not need a license for the tanks and whatever models you make.


But you do need a license for 3DMax for commercial usage.

 

Citation? How come I need a license to add a Ferrari to my game but not a tank name brand?

 

I'm pretty sure that the former half if what he said is incorrect. If you make a kind of tank that didn't exist before you invented it, no license is needed. If you make a real tank, you need to license the real tank, just as you would need to license a Ferrari or Smith and Wesson rifle.

 

Why are you attributing your model to be called 'Ferrari' or '(tank-brand-name)' or 'brand-name' in the first place?


Can you give the sports car a made-up name, the tank a made-up name?

Like what Aurore said: Design your own sports-car, your own tank, your own models. There is nothing wrong with that.

 

Well just change the likeness a tiny bit and of course use a slightly different name as well..

 

Most tanks are from world war 1 and 2 so I wonder if they are still under copyright or not and are the companies who made them even still exist.

I think its a gray area of using real world objects in games without paying a license to companies I think its currently untested in court, we should all keep an eye out for any cases that will confirm this in the future.

 

I took the question as : Can I use real names of tanks I make for my game? Therefore I answered that way. I gave him advice to do a parody of the real tanks.

We both were not clear, as I took your post as : You don't need licenses to add real tanks with there names.