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Writer's pictureTrial Byfire

GDD730 - Week 8: Intellectual Property

Updated: Aug 19, 2021


Image source: Falmouth Online University Canvass

Intellectual Property is defined as:

The subject we are starting with this week is IP and law. The first task this week is to familiarise ourselves with this by researching contemporary case studies directly related to your own practice. Staying abreast of contemporary issues ensures you are not only aware of the laws but also the precedents set in your time. The breadth of issues covered by the mainstream media is vast, ranging from patent trolls to song writers stealing melodies.

For this task, work as an individual and complete the steps below:

  1. Research one IP infringement that directly relates to your own practice or research interests.

Resident Evil Village by Capcom: Capcom are accused of stealing a monster design by Dutch filmmaker Richard Raaphorst from his film Frankenstein's Army. The alleged dispute is between this enemy design.

As you can see the similarities are huge. Right down to the stance of the creature.

  1. Explain why you chose it in 2 or 3 sentences.

I chose this because I am a huge Resident Evil fan. I am also a horror fan in general, so when I heard about this I was quite intrigued. I started by watching the movie as I had already played the game, and the after watching this, decided to replay the game and use photograph mode to take photos and get up close to the design. I must say, after looking into the details myself, I would be surprised if they didn't take this idea from the movie. There are so many similarities right down to the propeller detail at the tips covered in red. Here is a link to my research: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/filmmaker-accuses-capcom-of-stealing-resident-evil-village-monster-design/


Inventory IP Assets:


The second activity for this week is to create an inventory of IP assets held by the team. This can be undertaken by each team member asynchronously, or collaboratively with the whole team present at once.

This is a speculative exercise so think of the project as if it were just about to be launched.

Create your IP asset inventory, following the steps below.

  1. As an individual team member / a team, document your contribution so far.

  2. Be sure to identify who created each individual IP asset

  3. Decide which method of protection should be used for each asset:

    • Copyright

    • Trademark

    • Design rights

    • Patent

    • None (if you don’t think the asset is worth protecting).

4. Once the inventory is complete, consider carrying out a valuation of the IP using one of the three methods outlined on the UK website. My Contribution so far: All programming by me. Male & Female Character models by me.

Bridge and Dark rock assets and light rock assets by me.

Maple Tree by me.

Character animations by me.

Method of Protection:

For the programming there will be no protection since the actual codes and nodes used to create this already belong to epic games. I am just using their platform to do it. There are also multiple ways of making certain mechanics so seems fruitless to protect it. Male and Female Characters will be protected under the creative commons license where people may use, adapt and share my work freely and only need to give credit. These are basic low poly models and didn't take much time for me to put together. I wouldn't want anything else in return for these.


Bridge & Dark/light rock assets will also be protected under the creative commons license where people may use, adapt and share freely with given credit. Maple Tree will also be protected under the creative commons license where people may use, adapt and share freely with given credit.


Character animations will have no protection as they will also need the original skeletal mesh in order to use these. The animations are separate (no skin) from the models and are not provided anywhere separately. Exporting these from the project file and opening up in a separate programme will only display the skeleton for the animation and no character and would have to be retargeted and re weighted meaning it would have been adapted from my original making it ok for them to use as it then no longer becomes mine. It also seems unlikely that someone would go through this effort as by doing all of this it would have been just as quick to make their own. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Other Assets Used: Low Poly Style Deluxe 2: Tropical Environment by Epic Games Grass Save Game ability: Giri Creations FX Variety pack: Kakky All additional assets bar the Grass Save Game by Giri Creations have been adjusted or adapted by us of over 30% or more to comply with the creative commons license. The game credits have all of the additional assets creators credited also as per requirement.


All of the above assets that we used in addition to our own are protected under the creative commons license meaning we are allowed to use them in our project as a base. As mentioned, above these can be used, shared, adapted under the creative commons license in which they fall under. I have left a link to this above.


References:






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