COPYRIGHT: Copyrights are the best way that authors protect their creative efforts from being duplicated by others with out permission. A copyright is indicated by the © mark. They can be purchased, sold, rented, or abandoned. All Steve Jackson Games releases are protected by the copyright legal guidelines of the United States and a few international international locations. For more info, see Brad Templeton’s 10 Big Myths of Copyright Explained. TRADEMARK: Trademarks are names or symbols that identify a particular product or maker. They’re designed partly to guard consumers from imitations. Most distinctive sport-associated terms (and all sport names) used by Steve Jackson Games are trademarked (and a few are registered trademarks). Trademarks are indicated by the ™ symbol. The name Steve Jackson Games, for instance, is a trademark. When we use it to determine one of our products, it means not solely that the game was produced by us, however that it’s of the quality that you’ve got come to expect from Steve Jackson Games .

It’s polite to place any trademark in daring or italic sort. REGISTERED TRADEMARK: These are particular cases: trademarks which have been particularly registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. They are all the time accompanied by the ® symbol. Several of Steve Jackson Games’ marks are registered, including the eye within the Pyramid logo. Incidentally, the fact that the same image seems on U.S. Registered trademarks are protected by a particular set of laws, right here within the U.S. Among other things, these laws permit a trademark holder to lose his unique rights if he fails to protect them. Trade SECRET: A Trade Secret is any information which a company has which supplies it a competitive benefit over its rivals. Some examples might be lists of suppliers, information about clients, or a special manufacturing process. Steve Jackson Games might or may not own any Trade Secrets . Trade Dress: The overall appearance of a product or product line.

It can be very general (e.g., a courtroom has ruled that the shade pink, by itself, is protected trade costume for a manufacturer of insulation) or very particular. For instance, the current trade gown of the GURPS Third Edition line includes the GURPS logo at the top, and the SJ Games emblem at the bottom, of a “body” which holds the cowl art. The current commerce gown of the GURPS Fourth Edition line contains the GURPS emblem at the top, the SJ Games brand at the underside, and a “puzzle piece” collage of artwork between. Logo: Short for “logotype,” a word which no person makes use of any extra. A brand is a company or product identify (which can itself be a trademark) in a distinctive typeface. An emblem could even be a logo. Intellectual Property: Intellectual Property is the “catch-all” time period for sure forms of non-tangible property, together with (but not restricted to) Trademarks, Copyrights, Patents, Trade Secrets, Trade Dress and Logos.

Follow and browse the Image usage guideline. They must be correctly designated as trademarks or registered trademarks (™ or ® respectively) of Steve Jackson Games. Finally, the primary use of a product brand on any webpage or PDF’d sport support (and, preferably, all uses) should hyperlink back to our official page for that product, and any use of our company emblem should hyperlink again to our home web page. Copyrighted textual content (like game guidelines and vignette textual content) may not be used without particular permission of Steve Jackson Games. To get this permission, write to the Director of Licensing. The portions of the Munchkin RPG which might be launched underneath the Open Game License could also be copied in accordance with the phrases of that license. You could use a reasonable quantity of our art (no more than 10 pieces) in your net pages, convention program books, and similar “fan” applications, supplied that the art is utilized in reference to the game that it is drawn from, and its use is suitable, credits the artist, is legal, and otherwise complies with this policy.