Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California

Game concept(possibly content) from movie and book.

A few friends and I have started to recreate some material in the famous Harry Potter books & movies for use in a game. Our original plan was simply to create some content for use in resumes and profiles, but now we would like to take our progress and make it into a playable public modification for the Unreal Engine (our mod is free, but the engine to play it costs money).

Since we are remaking scenes/characters using some original content (from movies) as blueprints, are we infringing on the copyrights of Harry Potter? Do we need any special permission to model after the characters in the movie (renamed)? We are not using the trademarked Harry Potter as our mod name, but because we are recreating some scenes from the movie that would give a hint to Harry Potter, are we still infringing on the trademark of Harry Potter?

Thanks for your time!


Asked on 12/07/05, 1:30 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Bryan Whipple Bryan R. R. Whipple, Attorney at Law

Re: Game concept(possibly content) from movie and book.

I think you would be inviting a lawsuit....one which you might win if your luck is good and your pockets (to pay for the best lawyers) are deep. Or, you might lose. In either case, I think your activity would attract the attention of the copyright holders, who would examine your themes for evidence that you were profiting at their potential expense, and the risk is high that you would be sued -- especially if you had already made significant sales or profits.

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Answered on 12/07/05, 3:26 pm


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