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Owner of Tyranny IP
Dear all, does anyone know for certain whether Obsidian or Paradox is the owner of the Tyranny IP. I read here that it is an IP of Obsidian: http://www.hardcoregamer.com/2016/04/04/obsidian-reinvents-rpgs-with-newest-ip-tyranny/200779/
However, in the Tyranny website, at the bottom, it is stated that the trademark belongs to Paradox. Does anyone have any ideas?
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The trademark is clearly Paradox's. I don't think anyone can speak to what agreements might exist involving future development of the IP, save employees of either company.
™ means that there is a tentative legal claim to the mark.
® indicates that the mark has been registered with the USPTO.
This only concerns the mark itself, not any part of the game, so you can't tell much from this alone.
I see. But owners are the ones who have tentative legal claim to the mark 'Tyranny' right? If so, then Paradox, who have tentative legal claims to the mark, is indeed the owner of the mark 'Tyranny'. Now, since only owners of the IP 'Tyranny' will have rights to the mark 'Tyranny', then Paradox in fact owns the IP 'Tyranny' since it held tentative legal claims to the mark. Isn't it so?
No, if a publisher owns the name, and they own only the name, then if the publisher and developer part ways, the developer keeps what they brought to the relationship but the publisher keeps the name.
Ok, so you are saying that the trademark 'Tyranny' is not considered a part of the IP Tyranny which Obsidian owns. Is that right? Or are you saying that this specific iteration of the title 'Tyranny', with its specific color schemes and symbols, is a trademark of Paradox but the title 'Tyranny' is still owned by Obsidian?
Again, you can't tell who owns what from this:
"Tyranny™ is a trademark of Paradox Interactive. All rights reserved."
This means nothing, except that Paradox thinks they have rights to a mark they have not registered in their name.
I'm not saying that, but, yes, IP rights are unbundled.
One party can own the name.
One party can own the logo.
One party can own the setting.
One party can own the characters.
One party can own the story.
One party can own the music.
One party can own the technology.
And so on.
It is not essential for one party to own all parts of a whole merely because they own one part.
If Paradox owns the Tyranny trademark but not any other part, then Obsidian could, theoretically, sell a rebranded version of the game. "Theoretically" because, again, IP rights, which includes the right to publish, are unbundled, so there might be an agreement that gives Paradox a perpetual exclusive right to publish, in which case Obsidian, even if they hold every other right, would have to buy back the right to publish.
So, IP rights are impossible to deduce from this:
"Tyranny™ is a trademark of Paradox Interactive. All rights reserved."
You need access to the agreements to figure out anything meaningful, and even then, attorneys specializing in intellectual property will disagree about what means what. IP is hard.
Very nice and clear. Thank you very much! You should fly away now Captain.