Yes.
Designed your own board game? What forms of protection are available to protect a board game? Copyrights, Trademarks, and Patents.
COPYRIGHTS
Although the systems or processes that make up the core of a game, are not subject to copyright, the written rules, the design of the board, the cards, and other visual elements of the game can be copyrighted. Copyright protection exist in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device.
TRADEMARKS
A trademark or service mark includes any word, name, symbol, device, or any combination, used or intended to be used to identify and distinguish the goods/services of one seller or provider from those of others, and to indicate the source of the goods/services.
The name of the game, name of characters, logos, and any slogans used to promote the game can be trademarked. Can only be registrable though, if it functions as an identifier of the source of the applicant’s goods or services. Thus, if the name is generic or merely descriptive the game, more likely than not will be granted trademark protection.
PATENTS
A method of play could be patented as utility patent, which “may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof.”
I have helped countless business navigate the intricacies of trademark and copyright law to secure registration for board games . I’d like to help you too, also by protecting your rights to trademarks, copyrights, and other intellectual property rights in the US and overseas.
