A question about using car logos and images in a car card collector game.

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2 comments, last by Hodgman 5 years, 5 months ago

I'm designing a game where you can collect car cards and the goal of the game is to collect as many cars as possible. On the card there is an image of the car and the car brand. I wondered whether this is legally allowed. I do not intend to spend a lot of money on it. I don't think this is possible without spending a lot of money.

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I was wondering how it sits with the copyrights of car brands and images in the game. Because I don’t know the law too well. I do know that you should ask permission to the company you used the logo for and that you sometimes also have to pay for it. I have already read this topic. But I'm not sure if this is the case with me .

The Question is : can I use car brands and pictures in a way that I don’t have to pay for it. Ans if that is not possible. That there is a other way to do it.

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11 hours ago, Jarno said:

I don't think this is possible without spending a lot of money.

^^^ This one.

11 hours ago, Jarno said:

The Question is : can I use car brands and pictures in a way that I don’t have to pay for it.

For the way you are describing, no, it requires permission.

I'll dissent and say that this can be perfectly legal, but is still extremely risky. Unauthorized use of trademarks can still be legal and non-infringing.

Using the trademarks (Ford badge, Mustang GT name) is fine for descriptive purposes as long as you don't imply endorsement of Ford, are accurate in your description of the product, and only use it to identify their product.

It's risky because their lawyers can simply claim that you are implying endorsement, or that your description is damaging, or some other small detail like that, and then sue you for damages. You'd have to hire a lawyer to go and prove to a judge that what you did was fair and non-damaging.

As for the photo of the car, that's likely owned by some photographer (or someone who hired the photographer). You can't go reproducing other peoples photos without their permission -- that would be copyright infringement.

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