Hello!
Its legal to make a game for Google Play named Mickey Adventure with a character similar to Mickey Mouse but not equal? Google will ban the game if i don’t use copyrighted material?
Thanks people and regards!
PD: Mickey Mouse its just a example of a famous character
It’s sure ban. If big guy say that it’s too similiar to mickey mouse google won’t hesitate. You can of course go to court so if you expect to win with disney - go for it.
Maybe noone will notice your game if it’s small but you won’t make a lot of money too. Remember flappy bird? Their green pipes was too similiar to mario’s pipes.
It’s not just copyright you need to consider, there are trademarks too.
And what do you think about making a game named “Mickey Garden” with a character and design totally different from Mickey Mouse or Disney? Is bannable?
I’m not an laywer and those are only my personal opinions! Also my knowledge in that area is limited.
Anyway, i don’t think you would have problem with “Mickey Garden”, cause Mickey is common name. In my opinion “Mickey garden” is more safe than “micky mouse”, cause second is very similar to “mickey mouse”. Generally using mickey with some other character than mouse should be safe. Same thing with mario - you probably can make game about mario the dog safely.
Read about trademarks - it’s not only about a name, but also about context. For example you should be able to register trademark for company “Sweet Apple” which produces apple juice. But it will be much harder to register “Apple Pads” which produces mouse pads. Cause there is already apple in computer related context. Also apple word in computer context is something not common, so it’s strong trademark in such context.
Consider also that when there is doubt Google will always chose to ban you over refusing a big company.
Exactly. Smaller guy is always in worse position. So it’s just a matter of assesment of your risk. Is it worth? I guess you want to use mickey in your name for good keyword.
There is one game, 5th position on “mickey” search:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cheese.addiction
He uses mickey name with a mouse character.
Download history:
2014-04-22: Android application Mickey Cheese Addiction achieved 10,000 installs on Google Play.
2014-03-09: Android application Mickey Cheese Addiction achieved 5,000 installs on Google Play.
2014-02-02: Android application Mickey Cheese Addiction achieved 1,000 installs on Google Play.
Over 100 downloads per day. Pretty low for such position and such risky game name.
I would agree with mike82. If you name your app Mickey’s Garden with a mouse that looks even vaguely similar to Mickey Mouse then your intentions are clearly to infringe upon Disney property, as you can see with the following trademark search there are many trademarks filed for mickey that are not by disney:
And this accusations was just silly. I remember reading about it. You could probably find tons of games with similar coins, stars, clouds, bricks etc. Such things are basic shapes and will look similar.
If it was because of the pipes the author of Flappy Bird would just change the graphics a little and left the game in the store. It must have been something else - maybe his mental state, maybe some other issues.