Video Game Developer Lawyer
Finding The Right California Video Game Developer Lawyer, Sebastian Gibson
At some point in a video game developer’s life, they begin to have legal questions about how they can protect the video games they’re developing or their rights as they work with others. California Video Game Developer Lawyer Sebastian Gibson can answer these questions and not only protect your video game but also to avoid unnecessary problems that can arise so you can focus your attention on your video game and not on legal disputes that can affect your creative free spirit.
As a video game developer, you want to know your work is safe and your rights are protected. Without the right legal agreements, it may be unclear who will be responsible if your video game is stolen or infringed.
Video Game Developer Lawyer Sebastian Gibson has been recognized by Palm Springs Life Magazine as One of the Top Lawyers of 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2016, 2014, 2013, 2012 and 2011. He’s been called “Brilliant” and “A Legend.” If you want a top lawyer on your side, call Sebastian Gibson. Call Video Game Developer Lawyer Sebastian Gibson today at (760) 776-1810.
Video Game Developer Lawyer Sebastian Gibson, Protecting Your Video Game Development
By copyrighting and trademarking your video games, we can also importantly protect your art from those who would steal your ideas and works, copy them and play them off as their own. We’ll demand others to cease and desist such efforts and pursue litigation against those who would infringe your copyrighted and trademarked video games.
As a video game developer, you’re thus going to need not only work-for-hire agreements, but also copyright assignment agreements to ensure you retain complete and full ownership of all rights in the video game you’re developing. Work for hire agreements, while for the most part are useful, are always subject to attack by those who sign them and also by tax authorities determined to find an employment relationship for which you can be taxed.
You’re going to need to create a business entity as well for your video game development work and in the choice of what entity to form, we can provide you with options and the advantages of each. It’s not enough however, simply to form a business entity. Certain formalities must be followed in order to avoid a litigant from piercing the corporate veil and holding you personally responsible for damages they may convince a judge or jury they’ve incurred.
Should you fail to hold regular meetings of the directors and shareholders, co-mingle personal and corporate funds, commit fraud or perform illegal acts, you may find yourself personally responsible for the corporate debts and liabilities.
Additionally, you may wish to form a separate company from the original entity that holds your intellectual property and all your copyrighted and trademarked video game assets. The second company can lease the intellectual property from your original company and then seek outside investors. In the event you lose control of your outside investment company, you’ll still hold the intellectual property rights in your video games.
If you’re still operating under a partnership agreement hastily formed at an early stage that failed to address such issues as who will own the video game and the design elements you’ve created if the partnership is dissolved, what happens when partners leave, how profits will be split, what expenses will be paid, what rights spouses have, who makes decisions, how and in what circumstances partners can be removed and what rights they’ll have upon removal, etc., you need to think about incorporating your video game development enterprise more than ever.
Finally, offering to sell stock in your company is not something you can do without proper legal advice to steer you clear of SEC violations and keep you within the framework of what the SEC allows. You’ll also want to be wary of slicing off too many pieces of the pie or you may find you don’t have enough of the pie left for yourself.
If on the other hand, you’re a video game developer and you’ve been promised shares of stock or a percentage of someone else’s company developing the video game, you will want to ensure you have an ironclad agreement that spells out the terms of what you’ve been promised and which has a schedule for when your shares will vest and unlock.
With a copyright assignment, issues related to work-for-hire agreements can be avoided and with the proper legal advice, tax issues may be avoided as well.
As a video game developer, you have to be concerned with business contracts, insurance matters and claims giving rise to litigation. In today’s world in which limiting your tax exposure is as important as avoiding costly litigation, you need to have the right business entity in California, and be able to recognize problems that may result in litigation if unresolved and ones in which the assistance of a law firm such as ours can prove invaluable.
Not only are you going to want to protect your creative works as a video game developer with copyrights and trademarks, you should also protect your work as trade secrets. You have trade secrets in your video game design, your marketing and business plan for the video game, the source code and pricing. However, to be protected, it cannot be made part of the public’s general knowledge, and you must take steps to keep it secret. That doesn’t mean just not telling your mother, it means using firewalls, entering into non-disclosure agreements with your employees and independent contractors, and taking every other possible reasonable step to keep your trade secrets related to your video game from becoming known by others not working under a non-disclosure agreement including investors.
You’re going to want to copyright every possible element of your video game that can be protected, from your design to your art work, your animation, and advertising materials, the dialogue or story used in the video game, and anything else related to your video game that constitutes a copyrightable work, and you’ll want to trademark the video game name and possibly your trade name if it is also the name of your video game. Without copyright registrations, you won’t be able to seek damages in a court of law. And others using your service mark or product name prior to your trademark registration can obtain common law rights by virtue of their prior usage.
In the event you use the works of others in your video game, such as music, without the right to use it commercially, you may be responsible for damages from $750 to $150,000 per copyrighted work, and attorney’s fees and costs can be awarded as well to the plaintiff.
Be wary of music you can buy on the internet for your video game that has a limited license, such as for use on a website or for educational materials but nothing more.
There is also a mistaken belief that you can use samples of other people’s music in your video game without infringing their copyright. The doctrine of fair use, which is something else entirely, only includes usage in very limited circumstances, and those circumstances do not include commercial usage.
Before you think about preparing your copyright or trademark video game on your own, there is a reason why there are volumes and volumes of law on these subjects. They’re complicated for the average lawyer and there are examiners who will reject your video game for numerous reasons if your video game isn’t prepared properly and in the case of a trademark for a video game, if you haven’t had a trademark search performed by experts to learn what else is already trademarked that is too similar to yours.
A new law being proposed in congress in 2013 known as the Application Privacy, Protection and Security Act, will also require mobile app developers to let users know what an app’s privacy policies are, in particular as to what information is being shared and the length of time the information is kept by an app developer.
In states such as California, actions are already being taken by state attorney generals to protect the public from misuse of collected information. Having a lawyer create a mind-numbing explanation of how their privacy rights will be violated and their information utilized in a statement they can’t understand and which they must agree to before downloading your video game is no longer going to shield you from fines and litigation.
Having a lawyer create a mind-numbing explanation of how their privacy rights will be violated and their information utilized in a statement they can’t understand and which they must agree to before downloading your video game is no longer going to shield you from fines and litigation.
Likewise, using the same non-disclosure agreement you find on the internet with every person you come into contact with in the course of developing your video game, without tailoring it to their involvement isn’t going to be satisfactory when they punch holes in it in litigation with you. If the party you approach won’t sign your non-disclosure agreement, find another party to approach.
A proper NDA must name the parties, describe the confidential information in general terms without disclosing particulars, list any exceptions and underscore general descriptions of what’s protected, provide for how long the information must be kept secret, state the obligations of the party signing the non-disclosure agreement and consequences in the event they violate their obligations. The NDA should also state the governing law such as the law of the state of California, and contain other common requirements the party bound to secrecy must uphold.
Keep in mind, simply having an NDA is no guarantee your confidential information won’t be passed on to family members who pass it on to others and on and on. Consequently your non-disclosure agreement should provide you with the means to seek damages against not only the person or entities who utilize your confidential information, but also anyone who has signed an NDA and failed to keep your information secret.
Many video game developers today look to crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter for your seed money. The SEC is developing rules for offering an interest in your company to those who donate money to your video game development and you’ll want an explanation of what they allow once those rules are formulated. In the meantime, it’s wise to have an attorney from our firm who’s knowledgeable in the area of crowdfunding and who understands the risks involved and litigation that can be filed when individuals seeking funding either over-promise or under-deliver.
Once you’ve begun to offer and advertise your video game to the general public, you may think your need for legal advice and assistance is over, but unfortunately it is just beginning. It is much more common to have your ideas stolen or utilized in other video games once your video game is available to the general public than when it is still in development.
You may face litigation from consumers including class action litigation, FTC inquiries and local state actions if you violate their laws and regulations. You may face copyright, trademark and patent infringement suits as well. But if you’ve had proper legal counsel from a law firm that specializes in representing creative developers as ours does, the possibility of such legal problems can be significantly reduced.
As you develop more video games and grow as a company, we can assist you with your growing pains and help you provide for your future and for future generations.
If you need legal advice or contracts for e-commerce business you conduct over the internet, assistance with legal issues such as misappropriation of trade secrets, privacy rights, unfair competition, deceptive trade practices, interference with contractual relations, intentional and negligent misrepresentation, copyright, trademark and intellectual property infringement, false advertising or business fraud, we can help.
Whether you’re a multi-million dollar corporation or just starting out developing video games, we can provide you with non-disclosure agreements, copyright and trademark your creative works, advertising, trade designs and services, and we’ll provide you well-drafted contracts and agreements that fit your needs and help to avoid business lawsuits.
With over 40 years of experience, we specialize in drafting agreements specific to each industry we serve and we can handcraft a set of business agreements for your use and ensure they include the terms that are most important in the video game development industry.
Other Ways California Video Game Developer Lawyer Sebastian Gibson Can Help Your Video Game Development Business
At the Law Firm of California Video Game Developer Lawyer Sebastian Gibson we specialize in offering legal representation to a wide range of companies in the video game development industry. From Palm Springs and Palm Desert to San Diego, from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara, Orange County, San Jose and San Francisco, we serve video game development and other types of businesses throughout California from Anaheim, Santa Ana and Irvine to Oakland and internationally.
With law degrees in both the U.S. and the U.K. and years of business experience practicing international law in London, California Video Game Developer Lawyer Sebastian Gibson is one of the few attorneys in California who has experience handling international business matters in Europe and elsewhere in the world.
If you need legal advice for your video game development business, need specialized agreements or real estate contracts to be drafted, negotiated or reviewed, litigation defense or plaintiff business litigation, call the Law Firm of Sebastian Gibson and put a top-rated law firm on your side protecting your best interests.
California Video Game Developer Lawyer Sebastian Gibson, Your First Choice
With your video game development business protected by Attorney Sebastian Gibson, you can rest easy, knowing your legal matters are in capable hands, as we take the load off your shoulders, protect your best interests and put a stop to actions that may be harming you and your video game development business and pursue damages in litigation for any harm caused to you in California and elsewhere.
California Video Game Developer Lawyer Sebastian Gibson has been chosen one of the Top Lawyers for the past 12 years by Palm Springs Life Magazine for three years running for good reason. The author of thousands of articles on the internet, Sebastian Gibson has also written for the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal newspapers and is the author of a recently published book with sales throughout the U.S.
With law degrees in both the U.S. and the U.K., California Video Game Developer Lawyer Sebastian Gibson has over 40 years of experience in California and in England. He’s been frequently interviewed on radio and TV for his expertise and is widely followed on Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus and on multiple blogs.
Choosing the right Video Game Developer Lawyer to draft your video game development business agreements and to handle your litigation can make all the difference. California Video Game Developer Lawyer Sebastian Gibson is known for his wit and humor, and has also been named as a “Superb” Lawyer by Avvo, which rates attorneys throughout the U.S.
Confidence, And Peace Of Mind From An Experienced Business Lawyer
From Palm Springs, Palm Desert and Indio, to Orange County and San Diego, our video game development expertise can be of assistance to you. We can assist you in your video game development legal matters from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara, from San Jose to San Francisco, and from Long Beach to Sacramento. We assist clients in a wide range of business matters from cities up and down the coast of California and inland as well as to business clients in other parts of the U.S. and internationally.
If you have a video game development dispute brewing, our law firm can litigate it or resolve it. Now is when you need a California video game developer lawyer most. We can evaluate your situation, and determine the most efficient approach to either settling your video game development business dispute or pursuing litigation on your behalf. If your business matter is complex and hundreds of thousands or millions are at stake in litigation, we’ll assemble a team of attorneys to develop the evidence to obtain the result you deserve.
Tenacious Arbitration, Powerful Litigation, And Purposeful Mediation Of Your Court Matters
Before filing suit, we’ll explore whether the opposing party is open to settling any dispute you may have by means of mediation or arbitration before a neutral judge in California experienced in the matters at stake or by other informal means of dispute resolution. However, if there is the risk that damage may be done without quick action, we can draft and file a lawsuit in the appropriate California court within hours in an emergency situation and seek a preliminary injunction.
For over a quarter of a century in California, the lawyers with the Law Firm of Sebastian Gibson have been successfully handling business, personal injury and other civil litigation. Our attorneys have recovered millions of dollars for our clients, and saved millions more in our defense work.
When Success Means Everything, Call Attorney Sebastian Gibson For Your Video Game Development Business
If you need assistance with video game development legal matters, you’ll want to take advantage of our expertise. Simply call the number at the top of this page and talk directly with California Video Game Developer Lawyer Sebastian Gibson.
With offices in California in Palm Desert and Newport Beach and years of experience in London, California Video Game Developer Lawyer Sebastian Gibson can assist you with your video game development legal matters throughout California, the United States and internationally as well.
