What Does a Video Game Lawyer Do?

If you are a video game developer — maybe a hobbyist for now or maybe on the verge of launching — you need an experienced, industry-savvy video game lawyer. If this is you, call us here at Revision Legal at 231-714-0100 or 855-473-8474. We are internet and gaming attorneys with proven experience with IP protection, contract law, and complex litigation. Here is a short list of the expert legal guidance that you need.

Forming Your Corporate Entity

Even if you are a hobbyist at the moment, you need to form a corporate entity. We here at Revision Legal recommend forming a limited liability company, but there are other options. There are annual carrying costs and some corporate formalities, but if you are serious about eventually launching a video game development business, start now. There are tax advantages, and most importantly, forming a corporate entity protects your private assets in the event you are sued and a judgment is issued. A corporate entity also allows you to formalize the sharing arrangement with your friends and partners who are helping. Few video games are developed by one person. So, the art designers, coders, etc., can have ownership interests in the corporate entity. Forming a corporate entity will also lend a certain gravitas to your endeavors. That is, people will begin to take your goals seriously. Also, investors and financers will require a corporate entity.

Assistance With All Sorts of Contracts

There are myriad business and service contracts that will need to be reviewed and drafted. For example, if you need limited or more substantial art design, you will need specific types of independent contractor agreements. The key is to ensure that the copyrights and other intellectual property aspects of the services are ultimately owned by your video game development company. Depending on the circumstances, you may also need assignments of those intellectual property rights or a long-term license. You will also need confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements. Such will be especially important when you are marketing for investors, financing, and a buyer. If and when you hire actual employees, you will need solid and enforceable employment agreements and legal assistance to ensure compliance with local and federal labor laws. As an aside, you will also need excellent accounting and tax services to help with such matters as employee withholding taxes.

Trademarking, Copyright Registration, and Other Intellectual Property Matters

At some point, you will need to establish and register trademarks and copyrights for your newly developed video game. You will need legal help and guidance with these matters. Likewise, a video game development company will have internal trade secrets that must be protected in the proper and legal manner. This sort of IP protection is among the legal services provided by video gaming lawyers.

On the flip side, you will need proven legal guidance to avoid infringing upon the IP rights of others. Likewise, if your video game includes the likeness of real people, you will need help securing the rights to use another person’s likeness.

A Few Other Services Provided by Video Gaming Lawyers

Experienced video gaming attorneys provide many other necessary legal services, including the following:

Drafting and preparing terms of service and privacy policies for websites
Compliance with laws respecting consumer privacy if your website collects information from users
End-user and licensing agreements for websites and software
Compliance with cybersecurity requirements (if applicable)
Assistance with the sale of your video game development business or licensing of your game
Assistance with the legal aspects of marketing and sales
Prosecuting litigation to protect your video game
Defending against lawsuits filed by others

For more information, contact the trusted video game lawyers at Revision Legal. You can contact us through the form on this page or call (855) 473-8474.

Licensing and Publishing Agreements

One of the most significant legal events in a video game developer’s career is signing a publishing agreement. Publishers typically provide funding, marketing, and distribution in exchange for a share of revenue, publishing rights, and often significant creative control. Publishing agreements can contain provisions that grant the publisher ownership of the intellectual property, rights to sequels and derivative works, audit rights over the developer’s financial records, and termination rights that allow the publisher to remove the developer from the project. Without experienced legal representation, a developer can sign away the most valuable assets of their business for inadequate compensation and without understanding the long-term implications.

Video game lawyers also help developers negotiate licensing agreements for their games — licensing to console manufacturers, to streaming platforms, or to merchandise producers who want to use game characters on physical products. Each type of license has different considerations: royalty rates, exclusivity provisions, quality control requirements, territory limitations, and term and renewal rights. A poorly negotiated license can result in the developer receiving far less than fair value or losing control over how their intellectual property is presented to consumers.

Esports and Content Creator Legal Issues

The growth of esports and streaming has created an entirely new category of legal issues for video game developers and publishers. If your game has a competitive esports component, you will need legal guidance on prize pool structuring, sponsorship agreements, team and player contracts, and compliance with the gambling laws of states where competitions are held. Fantasy sports and esports wagering regulations vary widely by state and are changing rapidly.

Content creators — streamers and YouTubers — present a different set of legal issues. Your game’s end user license agreement (EULA) and terms of service must address whether users are permitted to create “let’s play” videos and monetize them on YouTube or Twitch, whether user-created content that incorporates your game’s assets is permissible, and what rights you retain in user-generated content created within your game. Many developers actively encourage content creation because it drives organic marketing, but the legal framework governing those relationships should be intentional and clear — not left to chance or the default provisions of platform terms of service.

Employment vs. Contractor Classification for Game Developers

Video game development studios frequently use a mix of employees and independent contractors. Misclassifying workers as contractors when they should be employees is one of the most common legal mistakes made by game studios, and it can result in significant back taxes, penalties, and liability for unpaid benefits. The IRS, Department of Labor, and state agencies each apply their own tests for worker classification — and a worker may be classified differently for different purposes.

Beyond classification, the intellectual property ownership implications of contractor versus employee status are critical in game development. Under the “work for hire” doctrine, copyrights in works created by employees within the scope of their employment automatically vest in the employer. By contrast, copyrights created by independent contractors vest in the contractor unless there is a written agreement assigning those rights to the studio. A video game attorney will ensure that every contractor agreement includes an appropriate intellectual property assignment clause — covering not only current work but also pre-existing materials the contractor incorporates into the project — so that the studio owns a clean chain of title to the finished game.