Save the game

Protecting a game from copycats prior to its release is easier than ever, thanks to the U.S. government. If a video game isn't quite finished, all developers need to do these days is copyright it while it's still in the programming stage.

The right to pre-register a game that is still a work in progress was granted to all computer game developers under the Artists' Rights and Theft Prevention Act of 2005, signed by President Bush and Congress late last year.

Ultimately, all games must be registered for copyright once complete, but pre-registration helps developers protect games from infringement even in the earliest stages of production. According to the International Intellectual Property Alliance, Washington, global piracy diverted more than $2.4 billion from the $28 billion industry in 2005 due to games hitting the Internet well before they were offered on game store shelves.

Only certain works are eligible for pre-registration, although this includes a wide range of computer programs, video games, advertising/marketing photographs, movies, sound recordings and other artists' works. The products must also be unpublished, or not yet available to the public. Online video games Doom 3 and Half Life 2 lost millions of dollars in revenue after being downloaded thousands of times before their official release.

According to Steve S. Barbarich, CEO of Inventors' Publishing and Research, a San Francisco-based firm that helps inventors market and license their patents, “It's a positive” from the inventor's point of view, “but the only problem with it would be if the game is not complete. Someone else can be inventing something similar to that, and come out with the same outcome and have the same game with two different copyrights.”

Barbarich adds, “Because games are so different, it's unlikely that someone will have the same game. If it was an actual product...products are a little different, because they can be similar. It's a good place holder and protects someone early on. Infringement is definitely a problem; you see it in every industry. In the video game industry there are always people trying to copy the most popular game.”

To secure pre-registration, developers must fill out an application that identifies the computer product plus its working title, the author, the copyright owner, key dates (when project began) and a description of the work. They must also pay a $100 filing fee. As of April of this year, 100 works have been pre-registered.