COPYRIGHT: Copyrights are the way that authors protect their artistic efforts from being duplicated by others without 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 overseas international locations. For extra data, see Brad Templeton’s 10 Big Myths of Copyright Explained. TRADEMARK: Trademarks are names or symbols that determine a specific product or maker. They are designed partly to protect shoppers from imitations. Most unique recreation-related phrases (and all game names) utilized by Steve Jackson Games are trademarked (and a few are registered trademarks). Trademarks are indicated by the ™ symbol. The name Steve Jackson Games, for example, is a trademark. Once we use it to determine certainly one of our merchandise, it means not solely that the game was produced by us, but that it is of the quality that you’ve come to anticipate from Steve Jackson Games .

It is polite to put any trademark in daring or italic kind. REGISTERED TRADEMARK: These are special instances: trademarks which have been particularly registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. They’re at all times accompanied by the ® image. Several of Steve Jackson Games’ marks are registered, including the eye within the Pyramid emblem. Incidentally, the fact that the same image seems on U.S. Registered trademarks are protected by a special set of laws, here within the U.S. Among different issues, these legal guidelines enable a trademark holder to lose his exclusive rights if he fails to guard them. Trade SECRET: A Trade Secret is any information which an organization has which gives it a aggressive benefit over its rivals. Some examples might be lists of suppliers, information about customers, or a special manufacturing course of. Steve Jackson Games may or might not own any Trade Secrets . Trade Dress: The general appearance of a product or product line.

It can be very normal (e.g., a court docket has ruled that the colour pink, by itself, is protected trade gown for a producer of insulation) or very particular. For instance, the current trade gown of the GURPS Third Edition line consists of the GURPS emblem at the top, and the SJ Games logo at the bottom, of a “body” which holds the cover art. The current trade costume of the GURPS Fourth Edition line includes the GURPS emblem at the top, the SJ Games emblem at the underside, and a “puzzle piece” collage of art between. Logo: Short for “logotype,” a phrase which nobody uses any more. A emblem is a company or product title (which may itself be a trademark) in a particular typeface. A logo might also be a emblem. Intellectual Property: Intellectual Property is the “catch-all” time period for sure kinds of non-tangible property, including (but not limited to) Trademarks, Copyrights, Patents, Trade Secrets, Trade Dress and Logos.

Follow and read the Image utilization guideline. They should be properly designated as trademarks or registered trademarks (™ or ® respectively) of Steve Jackson Games. Finally, the primary use of a product emblem on any webpage or PDF’d game assist (and, ideally, all makes use of) should hyperlink again to our official page for that product, and any use of our company brand must hyperlink again to our house web page. Copyrighted text (like game guidelines and vignette textual content) may not be used with out particular permission of Steve Jackson Games. To get this permission, write to the Director of Licensing. The parts of the Munchkin RPG which can be released below the Open Game License may be copied in accordance with the phrases of that license. It’s possible you’ll use an affordable amount of our art (not more than 10 pieces) on your net pages, convention program books, and comparable “fan” purposes, provided that the artwork is utilized in connection with the game that it is drawn from, and its use is appropriate, credit the artist, is authorized, and otherwise complies with this policy.