RPG legal specialists?

[fireinthedust]

If I wanted to start a company, what kind of legal advice would I need?


Beyond this, is there a firm that has a track record for RPG industry work? Several firms?

I'm thinking in terms of copyright stuff, especially if I were to do an OGL book using material from various sources.

In fact: what if I were to do a *non-OGL* system? Looking over the combat rules in various systems that I do have, many of them are so similar I wonder why everyone isn't suing each other like crazy!

 

[Morrus]

What you're thinking of is an IP lawyer. There aren't an RPG-specific lawyers; the industry is too small for that; plus RPGs don't have any particular requirements that other IP law hasn't.

 

[czak]

If all you want to do is set up a company, any garden variety small firm or sole practitioner can help you out. Get you incorporated, do all the legwork. Same with helping you understand the OGL license. You could also do it yourself, as long as you aren't selling shares its pretty straight forward in Ontario and there are lots of small business guides on how to do it.


If you are going to start messing around with non ogl content, and are worried about being sued you need to talk to either a boutique firm that does IP law (Smart and Biggar have an office in TO for example) or one of the national firms (Stikemans, Davies, McCarthy Tetrault etc..). Legal advice from these firms is eyebleedingly expensive.

 

[wbsutton]

IP advice from over the pond

You might also get lucky and get an IP lawyer who is also a gamer to help you with either advice or simply may be able to help you publish.

The non-OGL issue is difficult and basically warrants a full proofing of your material to see if there is anything that is potentially infringing. The fact that WOTC (for example) has created a boilerplate OGL means that the courts will be more lenient on those authors that want to go OGL. Authors who want non-OGL will either have to pay for it, or make their gaming systems "significantly different" so as to avoid attracting any unwanted attention.

 

[Guest 85555]

I would do some research before making any decisions. Pay special attention to things like local ordinances for opening businesses. When Bedrock first started, we thought it would be easy. Looking on some "How to pages", we figured it would cost us 30 bucks at the clerks office to start. But those were written generally for the whole country. What we discovered was our city had unusual requirements to get your DBA and to operate (requirements that cost us hundreds of dollars before we could even open a business account). Interestingly, our city was one of two in the state that had such requirements at the time.

In terms of IP stuff, you may want to get a consultation with an IP Lawyer, or you may be able to speak to someone through your local chamber of commerce (we have a committee in our city that will answer many of these questions for free and help with things like business plans and paperwork).

One thing I really advise you to bone up on, is accounting and taxes.

Also, it never hurts to call your reps or selectmen to see if their office can help you through the process. One of their functions is to help constituents navigate these sorts of things.

EDIT: Just noticed you are posting from Canada. I imagine IP laws are different there than they are for the UK or the US.

 

[ShadesOfGrey]

I'll echo what everyone else said previously, you'll need an IP lawyer.

Also, read up on the difference between trademarks, copyright & patents.
(good) legal advice *should* mean you dont need to know the difference, but but it's never a bad thing to at least know important basic info like that.