Shawn R. L.
New member
Cute, Markus-san.
Interesting Site - Paper Models
- Thread starter Evil Dave
- Start date
philologus
Subgenius
If GW could claim that these cats were infringing on their IP; couldn\'t the same be said for GW. Anybody think battletech, mechwarrior, robotech when they see the Titans?
Battlemech and robotech are from about 1985. I believe battlemech was inspired and licensed from the robotech people. Fasa had to withdraw a few mechs from their computer games when the rights were sold to a toy company (AFAIK).
Mechwarrior was the first battlemech inspired computer game and was released in 1989. Anyway, the battlemech/robotech IPs are definitely older than GW\'s titans.
philologus
Subgenius
@ minimaker: I thought they were older. They are all just big robots with humans in the head driving them.
@EvilDave: I thought they were ForgeWorld when I first saw them here too. I sometimes think companies go overboard with some of these suits.
@EvilDave: I thought they were ForgeWorld when I first saw them here too. I sometimes think companies go overboard with some of these suits.
Yup, the idea itself was much older. But that has nothing to do with copyright. An idea (walking robotlike combat vehicles) can not be copyrighted. The expression of the idea is copyrighted the moment it\'s in it\'s material form.
So, anybody can make walking robotlike combat vehicles. The thing you can not do is to make robotlike vehicles based on the design of another, unless permission has been given.
The Robotech/Battletech/Mechwarrior vehicles are different from the GW ones, so GW is not trespassing a copyright. Battletech/Mechwarrior had some kind of arrangement with Robotech which allowed them to share some mechs. These mechs were removed from the FASA/Activision games when Robotech rights were sold to a toy company.
IP is kind of complicated and people often confuse issues like copyright, trademark and patents. Here is a site I just found with info on these issues: http://www.wipo.int/portal/index.html.en
There was also a good discussion on the issue over at TMP which I\'d recommend reading if you\'re interested in the matter:
http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=49261&page=1
So, anybody can make walking robotlike combat vehicles. The thing you can not do is to make robotlike vehicles based on the design of another, unless permission has been given.
The Robotech/Battletech/Mechwarrior vehicles are different from the GW ones, so GW is not trespassing a copyright. Battletech/Mechwarrior had some kind of arrangement with Robotech which allowed them to share some mechs. These mechs were removed from the FASA/Activision games when Robotech rights were sold to a toy company.
IP is kind of complicated and people often confuse issues like copyright, trademark and patents. Here is a site I just found with info on these issues: http://www.wipo.int/portal/index.html.en
There was also a good discussion on the issue over at TMP which I\'d recommend reading if you\'re interested in the matter:
http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=49261&page=1
