Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> > http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.pdf

> That's kind of odd, given "look and feel" lawsuits covering everything from 
> greeting cards to windowing interfaces. I would think the entirety of a 
> video game (especially a casual one) would fall under "look and feel."

  The look and feel of a product can be trademarked (tradedress). It does
not fall under copyright.

  Look and feel is not about game mechanics, the way a game works and how
it's played. It's how it looks.

  If you make a game that looks like, for example, a Barbie game (including
color schemes, fonts, character design...), the company that owns the
tradedress rights can sue you even if you never use the name "Barbie" or
any of the other trademarked names of the franchise. However, they cannot
sue you from copying the game mechanics of one of their games, if you use
your own original graphics, sounds and code.

  A puzzle piece consisting of four squares is not distinctive enough to
be considered tradedressing, even assuming tetris was tradedressed (which
it isn't).

> I'm not sure this is talking about video games, given the rest of the 
> paragraph. It makes much more sense if you read it in terms of something 
> like board games.

  And why would it make any difference, exactly?

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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