Licensing??

[midknight123]

How do you get permission to trademarks? What is all involved and how much does it normally run? Are there any requirements before approaching a company?

David

[Jesse Scoble]

Originally posted by midknight123
How do you get permission to trademarks? What is all involved and how much does it normally run? Are there any requirements before approaching a company?

David

Hmm...huge range of answers here. By trademarks, do you mean just referencing someone's work? In other words, if we wanted to stat out Spider-man in the upcoming SAS book, we'd have to get Marvel's permission (which is extremely unlikely).

On the other hand, to use another company's IP to create a licensed product (such as any of our anime licenses), you need to figure out what it is you want to do, and who holds the controlling rights.

That's a vague answer, but I have no clue if you want to publish a book, make an action figure, or film a movie.

Generally, the more popular a license, the more money it runs. Most companies work on an upfront amount, which is then counted against a guarantee of how much you'll make for them over the course of the contract.

Some companies, however, even if very little work is requried from them, don't seem to want to take your money. Stinkers! :)

cheers,
JS

[midknight123]

I guess I should be a little more specific. I am interested in creating an rpg book. The book would require a trademark of another company's product. What I really need is what to do first. Do you just contact the company first or do you need to know what channels to go through.
As for cost, I am looking for something to expect. I know the answer varies. I just want to know if it will cost thousands or as low as $100. Do you need a lawyer to go through and what kind of charges should I expect from them.
This is a subject I have very little experience with. I know how to publish and everything else. I am just not sure about the legal briar patch.
Thanks for answering my question.
David

[Jesse Scoble]

Originally posted by midknight123
[B]I guess I should be a little more specific. I am interested in creating an rpg book. The book would require a trademark of another company's product. What I really need is what to do first. Do you just contact the company first or do you need to know what channels to go through.


Again, it depends on what you mean. There's a reasonbly wide difference between doing a horror-RPG, and providing the stats for Freddy Krueger, as opposed to doing the "Complete Nightmare on Elm St. RPG & Resource Book."

Now, many companies (though probably not a lot of the little ones) have put a reasonable amount of thought into licensing their properties. If you don't have a contact name or number (and it doesn't sound like you do), I'd write a very brief, but polite, query letter to the company, asking for the name of the person in charge of licensing. It might help to say you are working in print media, but it's probably not a big deal at this stage.

Once you have the name/department in charge of licensing, then you can put together a more formal proposal.

As for cost, I am looking for something to expect. I know the answer varies. I just want to know if it will cost thousands or as low as $100. Do you need a lawyer to go through and what kind of charges should I expect from them.

Again, it can vary so widely that any answer I give, without knowing what the property is, is a complete guess. Licensing a relatively unknown character from an indie comic might cost as little as a few hundred dollars up front, plus a small guarantee against royalties. On the other hand, Decipher offered Lucasfilm something like more than what Star Wars initially cost to do a CCG for Episode II - and they didn't get the contract.

You really don't need a lawyer at this early stage, although if you are really out of your depth you might wish to speak with one before any contracts are signed.

cheers,
JS

[hemflit]

Sorry to bring back a dead thread, but this question didn't seem worth starting up a new one:

In what range would you in-the-know people expect the cost of purchasing an expensive, "hip" license to be? Something along the lines of a Star Trek/Indiana Jones/LotR/Matrix RPG nowadays?

Edit: Just in case it's not clear, i mean the "full thing", that is, the license to publish (for example) "The Matrix RPG" with the setting, characters and events from the movie.

Also, when you're basing a complete product line on a license like this (as opposed to just printing Freddie's stats, to use Jesse Scoble's example) how are the licenses usually limited? That is, does one usually get a license to publish 5 books at once, or a thousand pages, or a million-words-worth of books, or perhaps any quantity of material within 2 years? Or would they insist on renewing the license for every book?

hemflit, just curious

[Rubisco]

and along the same line as this thread, would you expect it to cost much to get permission to make an RPG of a book series that seems over. By "over" i mean it doesn't seem like the author is going to write any more books in that series and that the general public has stopped buying them.

I would think that the author may be inclinded to allow or encourage an RPG that may revive an interest in his book series.

And do you just write him and/or his pubishers to get permission or approval?

[Gold Rush Games]

The first thing I would recommend is reading up about trademarks and copyrights. Know what it is you are going to be negotiating for. That is, know about the subject you will be discussing with a potential licensor. Going into negotiations (if you even get that far) and sounding totally naive is not going to impress the company from whom you want to get a license.

Two great web sites for learning at least the very basics about trademarks and copyrights are:

http://www.uspto.gov
http://www.loc.gov/copyright/

As for cost... we have negotiated licenses that cost nothing up front and just a few % of retail, to one that cost thousands of dollars up front and 10% royalty on sales. It really does vary quite a bit.

What rights or properties are included in the license?What's the perceived value of the property today? How about last year? Next year (is there a big movie sequel on the way?)

Lots to know and consider. It's definitely {B]not[/B] something you are going to be able to bone up on here on the RPGnet boards. You gotta research the topic, and I would strongly recommend starting at the two web sites listed above.

Hope this helps.

[Rubisco]

Yes, this does give me some things to think about. In the last several days, I have been doing some research into the author and his book series some more. It turns out that the series isn't as OVER as I thought it was eariler. There maybe even a Movie/TV deal in progress which means my orriginal ideas about getting permission have just been thwarted (or at least bent). This game idea of mine is still only in the "idea" stage and I have given it very little work up to this point. I was just curious how big of a hurtle I would have to just should I ever decide to develop the game for public use.

Thanks again.

[Gold Rush Games]

Why give up now? Do your homework and then contact them any way. If a movie is in the works, all the better to get in on the license NOW. Then your game will be there when the movie is released and...

[Matthew]

Originally posted by hemflit
Sorry to bring back a dead thread, but this question didn't seem worth starting up a new one:

In what range would you in-the-know people expect the cost of purchasing an expensive, "hip" license to be? Something along the lines of a Star Trek/Indiana Jones/LotR/Matrix RPG nowadays?

$30k. 60k. Depends on the license. There's no limit to how many books you can publish with a typical license. Renewal is usually 3 or 5 years. I've worked on Star Trek, Dune, Middle-earth, lots of licesnes.