Legality of Using Gun Names in a Commercial Game

dmilinovichiii

I have been googling for the past hour or so looking for an answer to this question. To be more specific, I need to know if I can put guns in my game without modifying their name and what they look like. For instance, can I put an M1911 into my game if in the game it says, "Colt M1911"? Or does it just need to say, "M1911"? Or can I not do that at all? I have also seen a lot of sites where people say they think it is one way or another or don't site their source, so could anyone who answers this site their source please?

tenrdrmer

This is gonna be a question for a Lawyer to be honest. I dont know if the war games pay royalties or not. you can surely use the generic model names like M1911, AK-47, AR-15 etc... as those are guns made by numerous companies but to specify a specific make and model number may get you in hot water. theres no way to know with out consulting the company itself or a lawyer.

Also please do not reject answers that are simply not what you want to here. @SAZ_1 gave a sound answer to your question. if you felt the need for more info you can simply make another post. rejecting answers like that will likely turn those users away from offering any additional help. Just a thought.

theCodeMonsters

Yeah I wouldn't do it. Even if it is Legal, there is still possibility for people to want to make a few bucks off of suing you. They're stupid people in this world and as long as there remains to be stupid people, I'd stay away from anything even possibly legally questionable.

SAZ_1

I have no source nor do i have an answer but it would be interesting to know... i guess maybe you can contact the manufacturers directly (in which case they might ask for royalty) ... or you can go with artistic design and make a tiny modification to it to make it unique and not theres ... maybe add a dash in there

again this is all speculation TBH ..

dmilinovichiii

That's another thing. I'm not interested in having to pay royalties so I'm hoping there is a way to do this that won't cost me anything.

dmilinovichiii

@tenrdrmer
Thanks for the info.

@SAZ_1
Sorry I rejected your post. It was an accident as I have not been on the new forum yet and am not very familiar with it yet.

@tshirtbooth
After they sent you the letter did you remove the shirt? And did they do anything else happen?



So far what I have done is sent an email to Heckler & Koch asking what their policy is. If they say it is ok then I will have a decent selection weapons to chose from. If they don't, then my game will probably have an HKK21 instead of an HK21. From what I have read online, that is ok.

DDJW Studios

Just do what GTA and other games do with guns. Have generic names that will be understood by normal people for example "AK-47" could be "Assault Rifle", M16 could be "Carbine Rifle", "M1911" could be "Pistol", "Magnum" could be "Revolver".

jamie_c

This thread is 2 years old...

tenrdrmer

@DDJW Studios Please do not resurrect Old threads. If you have an issue you need addressed feel free to post a new thread if no recent discussions can be found. there is also no reason to offer a response Useful or otherwise to a discussion that is so old. It just clutters the forums with old content.

Thanks
Aaron

Closed