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Does anyone know what year the copyrights of GW IP are set to expire?

Obviously if they are still around when its a issue then they might be able to push it back, but i think it would be cool to know when the Copyright on the name 'Warhammer 40k' runs out and enters the public domain.

You're thinking of Trademarks. Names aren't copyrighted. Literary works, etc are copyrighted.

http://www.lawmart.com/forms/difference.htm


Automatically Appended Next Post:

1. The purpose of a copyright is to protect works of authorship as fixed in a tangible form of expression. Thus, copyright covers: a) works of art (2 or 3 dimensional), b) photos, pictures, graphic designs, drawings and other forms of images; c) songs, music and sound recordings of all kinds; d) books, manuscripts, publications and other written works; and e) plays, movies, shows, and other performance arts.

2. The purpose of a trademark is to protect words, phrases and logos used in federally regulated commerce to identify the source of goods and/or services.

Not necessarily true. E.G major Disney characters are both trademarked and copyrighted.

 ChocolateGork wrote:
Not necessarily true. E.G major Disney characters are both trademarked and copyrighted.

Right, the creative work (i.e. the character) is copyrighted, not just the name. Which is what I said.

 pretre wrote:

 ChocolateGork wrote:
Not necessarily true. E.G major Disney characters are both trademarked and copyrighted.

Right, the creative work (i.e. the character) is copyrighted, not just the name. Which is what I said.

Not exactly, You said "The purpose of a trademark is to protect words, phrases and logos", but designs, smells, tastes, images and even colors can be trademarked. So the image of Mickey, not just his name is trademarked.

So i guess the question is. What exactly has GW Trademarked and what have they copyrighted?

What pretre said (to my knowledge designs, smells, and tastes cannot be trademarked unless they are identifying marks of a certain brand, etc. for example the stylized aquila design used in the warhammer 40k logo is part of the warhammer 40k trademark). Trademarks don't expire, you only lose the trademark if you fail to suitably protect your claim over it. Warhammer 40k (the word/name) is trademarked. If you're talking fluff, art, images, rules, etc. The copyright will likely only ever enter the public domain if and when GW goes belly up and doesn't sell the rights, etc. to another company (and at that point I think its 50-100 years before it becomes public domain).

 ChocolateGork wrote:
Not exactly, You said "The purpose of a trademark is to protect words, phrases and logos", but designs, smells and tastes and even colors can be trademarked.

Not exactly. I quoted a website that defined the differences between Trademarks, Copyrights and Patents. Hence the quote box.

In the UK, copyright lasts approximately 70 years from the end of the year the copyrighted material was created.

In Canada it is for the life of the author + 50 years afterwards

In the US it is the life of the author + 70 years afterwards

.. in general. There are some variations but that should give you a rough estimate at any rate.

Well if my calculations are correct, then Rogue Trader goes into the the public domain in the UK in 2057

70 years from first publication in 1987

I think Rouge Trader is already in the public domain.

Rogue Trader on the other hand...

 pretre wrote:
I think Rouge Trader is already in the public domain.

Rogue Trader on the other hand...

DERPY DERP

Aaaaanyways. So asked and answered on this topic. Warhammer 40k doesn't expire unless they choose to let it and the Copyrights aren't likely to expire since they keep making new editions and hence copywriting new material.

There's also things to keep in mind that GW claim to own things they actually don't.

Pick a relatively recent Marine codex, you'll notice that in the front they've trademarked "Land Speeder."

A little company called Lucasfilm actually does/did own that... And has had it registered in 'toys and games.'

That, since however seems to have expired in the last few years. Though, I'm still pretty sure that doesn't let GW say, "hey! We own it now!"

GW's copyright on Tyranids expires 15 years after the release of Alien.
GW's copyright of Necrons expires 15 years after the release of Terminator 1.
GW's copyright on Roman numbers expired 476 A.D.
GW's copyright on fur expired end of the cretaceous age

And they gave up on Pariahs since the owners of Doctor Who own the cybermen copyright.

 NecronLord3 wrote:
And they gave up on Pariahs since the owners of Doctor Who own the cybermen copyright.

Reaching...

 pretre wrote:

 NecronLord3 wrote:
And they gave up on Pariahs since the owners of Doctor Who own the cybermen copyright.

Reaching...

Definitely, I would think a major detail of the Cyberman design is the funky head-handles they usually seem to have.

 Balance wrote:

 pretre wrote:

 NecronLord3 wrote:
And they gave up on Pariahs since the owners of Doctor Who own the cybermen copyright.

Reaching...

Definitely, I would think a major detail of the Cyberman design is the funky head-handles they usually seem to have.

Ignore them. They're just bits of sprue that weren't cut off prior to painting.

Umm.. They look exactly like them minus the head handles and caring the Warscythes. Even their fluff makes them Cybermen as they were assimilated humans. Cybermen are just a human brain, Pariahs had more bits apparently. More like Robocop or Darth Vader. But GW has never been one to rip off one intellectual property when they can rip off two or three at one time!

The interesting point is if Gw's physical sculpts are classed as design rights rather than copyright, they are only good for 15 years after first use if not registered.
(See lucasfilm stormtrooper case which said that mass produced toys are only protected under design rights.)

If so many gw minis are fair game for reproduction and sale in the UK.

 NecronLord3 wrote:
Umm.. They look exactly like them minus the head handles and caring the Warscythes. Even their fluff makes them Cybermen as they were assimilated humans. Cybermen are just a human brain, Pariahs had more bits apparently. More like Robocop or Darth Vader. But GW has never been one to rip off one intellectual property when they can rip off two or three at one time!

To be argumentative, and based off less than 5 minutes of search, major differences I see include:

* The aforementioned 'head handles' are only on Cybermen
*Cybermen have a chestplate with a sort of overlapping plates. pariahs are more a sculpted musculature armor piece. (older versions look to be mroe silvery cloth costumes with a Darth Vader-ish 'techy' chest plate.
* Pariahs have the iconic warscythe
* The Cybermen head has a distinctive round eyes with a small 'extension' of each eye.
* A big fluff difference is that the cybermen seem to take whomever they can, while pariahs are 'special' humans.

I certainly agree that GW has often had the idea of "Hey, X is cool... Let's add a version to our world" but they do seem to expend some effort to make it taking inspiration from not ripping off. It's a fine line, and I'm not a lawyer, but they do seem to just do what everyone else does. Their lawyers seem to be a bit overzealous at times, but that's a different problem.