ReportAEVI
AEVI Guides- Videogames and intellectual and industrial property
1 Jan 202515 pages~19 min full read
Under Spanish law, studios must secure written, exclusive, and worldwide copyright assignments from employees to ensure full exploitation rights, as initial authorship remains with the creator.
Copyright protection for game components like source code, scripts, and soundtracks arises automatically upon creation and lasts for 70 years after the author's death or 70 years from disclosure for collective works.
Trademarks, which require filing with the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office or the EUIPO, provide renewable ten-year protection terms and are critical for securing brand identity.
Industrial design rights protect the visual appearance of user interfaces for an initial five-year term, which can be renewed for up to 25 years.
Trade secrets, such as novel game mechanics or unreleased storylines, must be protected through formal confidentiality agreements and technical security measures rather than public registration.
EU law does not recognize a broad 'fair-use' doctrine, meaning developers must rely on limited statutory exceptions or public-domain status when incorporating third-party content.
The guide aims to equip video‑game developers and publishers with practical knowledge for building a robust intellectual‑property (IP) portfolio that safeguards creative assets and minimizes infringement risk. It clarifies the legal distinction between copyright‑related rights, which protect artistic and literary expressions, and industrial‑property rights such as patents, trademarks, industrial designs and trade secrets, emphasizing that trademarks and designs are the most relevant instruments for the sector.
Key points outline how each component of a game—script, dialogue, soundtrack, character graphics, user‑interface, source code, middleware and databases—can be protected. Copyright arises automatically upon creation and lasts 70 years after the author’s death (or 70 years from disclosure for collective works); registration at the General Registry of Intellectual Property can serve as evidence of ownership. Trademarks require filing with the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office or the EUIPO, granting ten‑year protection renewable indefinitely, while industrial designs protect the visual appearance of GUIs for five‑year terms, renewable up to 25 years. Trade‑secret protection relies on confidentiality agreements and technical safeguards for non‑public information such as storylines or novel mechanics.
The guide stresses that, under Spanish law, employees retain initial rights to their creations, so studios must secure written assignments—preferably exclusive, worldwide and lasting until the work enters the public domain—to ensure exploitable rights. Collective works, common in game development, confer ownership to the coordinating developer or publisher. For third‑party content, the document outlines limited exceptions—public‑domain use, statutory limits, and narrowly defined descriptive uses of trademarks—while noting that the EU does not recognise a broad “fair‑use” doctrine.
Overall, the document provides a comprehensive, jurisdiction‑specific framework for protecting video‑game assets across Spain and the European Union, guiding stakeholders through registration procedures, contractual safeguards and permissible uses of external material to secure commercial value and legal certainty.
