[Kde-games-devel] Kapman default theme

[Parker Coates]

On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 15:11, Mauricio Piacentini wrote:
> Parker Coates wrote:
>>> At the same time, no one has reported this as an issue yet. Any opinions?
>>
>> There are still some major trademark issues even with the theme
>> change. The application icon is still the original Pac-Man graphic and
>> the sound made when the hero dies is very similar to the original (if
>> memory serves me correctly).
>
> I think we should not be over cautious as well. One thing is the
> characters, but imo if we start going down this route (trying to
> anticipate every possible legal issue) then we will end up validating
> all claims that some companies do. As an example, several game companies
> also attempt (and succeed) in patenting game mechanisms, like the ghost
> rider, and this is something that is not recognized in almost all
> countries.
> So, let us not try to solve all potential issues, as we could easily
> fall prey to FUD tactics.

Just to clarify, I don't think we should be concerned about any
possible patents on game mechanics or any such nonsense. I don't see
that as being a real issue. Trademarks were really my only concern.

> Sound similarity for example is something that does not affect us, as no
> one could patent a specific "type" of sound. However, IF the sound we
> use is exactly the same from the game (sampled) then we should
> definately change it. Key idea is: similarity is ok, lifting a
> trademarked character is not. I will leave this to the sound authors to
> discuss: guys?

I just did some quick research and it seems that sound trademarks are
a relatively new thing and vary quite a bit from jurisdiction to
jurisdiction. One common thread seems to be that sound trademarks only
really apply to sounds that can be represented in musical notation, so
I think we're in the clear here.

> As an example, I would be against a game that features Pokemon
> characters, for obvious reasons (notice that at one time a chinese linux
> distribution was shipping such a theme for one of our games.)

That's interesting. I wasn't aware of that. Do you have a link to more
details anywhere? Google couldn't find anything relevant.

> Eugene said he would change the icon, so this is one less issue.

If the icon gets changed, we should be fine.

Parker

P.S.: I would also just like to point out that we shouldn't assume
that the lawyers won't come after us just because we're a relatively
small, non-profit project. This guy [1], had his free Flash Pac-Man
clone taken down for trademark infringement.

[1] http://www.neave.com/games/pacman/