Could Blizzard have a patent on playable orcs, gnomes, and dragon humanoids?

[KaffeeRausch]

I know this sounds silly, but after Warner Bros.'s patent on the Nemesis system, there are concerns.

Games Workshop recently had to rename Khuresh's Naga for Warhammer Fantasy to Nagga to avoid a naming patent.

Black Desert probably takes so long for the Drakania Awakening weapon because it is being rebuilt so as not to remind of the WoW Dracthyr.

Hence the fear that there will be patent disputes over gnomes, orcs and dragonborne.

Sega is said to have already sued Rockstar Games because it was probably patented to almost run over pedestrians in games on public roads, Crasy Taxi was the first game.
At some point the two of them came to an agreement.

Blizzard and Games Workshop always had an argument about big green orcs.

Hence the fear that Larian will only be sued for similarities, or even someone has patents for these races to appear in games with gameplay like this:
D&D Gnome = WoW Gnome.
D&D Green Half-Orcs = WoW Orcs.
D&D Dragonborn = WoW Dracthyr.

Blood Bowl 1.2.3 and Total War Warhammer 1.2.3 would not be affected, the game mechanics are structured differently?

[Freak4Leeks]

The term Orc and Gnomes are centuries old from mythologies those can not be copyrighted just like elves can't.

Dracthyr however i am not too sure on i have never heard that word outside of wow. But the idea of dragonoid isn't a unique idea either and has also been depicted in mythos


so no.

[CheapChievos]

This is some serious tinfoil hat stuff right here. Im amazed that people actually think about this sort of thing. D&D has been around far longer than WOW so could easily demonstrate a history of continued usage (much of which will be covered under the copyrights granted to the source materials and therefore Larian will have 0 issue using anything that is part of the D&D umbrella.

[Hex]

No. These fantasy races come from real life mythology, not trademarks lol. GW didn't change names to avoid trademarks, they changed them so they could trademark them. Whoever told you the opposite is lying.

[dulany67]

Originally posted by Hex:

GW didn't change names to avoid trademarks, they changed them so they could trademark them.

[KaffeeRausch]

Originally posted by Tinball:

No. They don't. You can't patent 'orc' just like you cannot patent 'space marine.'

Orc has been in popular culture far longer than D&D or any video game.

It's more about "Big Green Orcs" not the little black ones, they would be more like "Lord of the Rings".

Originally posted by CheapChievos:

This is some serious tinfoil hat stuff right here. Im amazed that people actually think about this sort of thing. D&D has been around far longer than WOW so could easily demonstrate a history of continued usage (much of which will be covered under the copyrights granted to the source materials and therefore Larian will have 0 issue using anything that is part of the D&D umbrella.

What is being patented today is how patents are trolled.
The patent for the Nemesis system is said to have been worded horribly, which is said to have a loophole in all directions to sue.

Originally posted by Hex:

No. These fantasy races come from real life mythology, not trademarks lol. GW didn't change names to avoid trademarks, they changed them so they could trademark them. Whoever told you the opposite is lying.

I would rather call the Nagga/Naga "Snakemen of Khuresh" myself, but nice to know that the name change was for other reasons.
Naga is also more of a description of the humanoid form, not the water creatures of WoW.

[wraith_73]

Originally posted by Niob87:

It's more about "Big Green Orcs" not the little black ones, they would be more like "Lord of the Rings".

Orcs can't be patented. Tolkiens orcs have been depicted in several ways over the decades. Look up the earlier animated depictions and you will see them as large green orcs that fairly closely resemble the orcs of WOW. In point of fact, D&D likely has more copy righted monster types then any other company in the gaming industry and they don't even have orcs copy righted and patented.

You can look through a monster manual and see how may creatures have TM after their name, it's quite a few, and both TSR and WotC have been at this a lot longer then most gaming companies.

[Yojo0o]

What? No.

[RealDealBreaker]

Originally posted by Niob87:

I know this sounds silly, but after Warner Bros.'s patent on the Nemesis system, there are concerns.

Games Workshop recently had to rename Khuresh's Naga for Warhammer Fantasy to Nagga to avoid a naming patent.

Black Desert probably takes so long for the Drakania Awakening weapon because it is being rebuilt so as not to remind of the WoW Dracthyr.

Hence the fear that there will be patent disputes over gnomes, orcs and dragonborne.

Sega is said to have already sued Rockstar Games because it was probably patented to almost run over pedestrians in games on public roads, Crasy Taxi was the first game.
At some point the two of them came to an agreement.

Blizzard and Games Workshop always had an argument about big green orcs.

Hence the fear that Larian will only be sued for similarities, or even someone has patents for these races to appear in games with gameplay like this:
D&D Gnome = WoW Gnome.
D&D Green Half-Orcs = WoW Orcs.
D&D Dragonborn = WoW Dracthyr.

Blood Bowl 1.2.3 and Total War Warhammer 1.2.3 would not be affected, the game mechanics are structured differently?

No, because even if they could patent playable races so broadly, WoW was not the first use gnomes, orcs, or dragonoid races (all except a dragonoid type were used in BG1 which released 6 years before WoW, all were also used in the MMO Everquest which released 5 years before WoW meaning WoW wasn't even the first MMO to use those playable races). WB could patent the Nemesis System because they were the first to develop and use that system. And system is definitely the right word for how the Nemesis System plays out behind the scenes. There's a pretty good GDC presentation about the Nemesis sSystem that talks about some of the detail of the system.

[Quillithe]

Originally posted by Niob87:

Games Workshop recently had to rename Khuresh's Naga for Warhammer Fantasy to Nagga to avoid a naming patent.

Are you sure it wasn't renamed so they could trademark the name? They did a lot of that to their generic races.

[PaSch™]

Originally posted by Niob87:

Blizzard and Games Workshop always had an argument about big green orcs.

That's mostly because Blizz wanted to make Warhammer-Games out of the Warcraft Series. But they couldn't get the licenses.

And because of that they made their... Own game. I'd say a ripoff.

https://kotaku.com/how-warcraft-was-almost-a-warhammer-game-and-how-that-5929161

[KaffeeRausch]

Originally posted by Quillithe:

Originally posted by Niob87:

Games Workshop recently had to rename Khuresh's Naga for Warhammer Fantasy to Nagga to avoid a naming patent.

Are you sure it wasn't renamed so they could trademark the name? They did a lot of that to their generic races.

can protect names, then just that.

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

So, I think you mean copyright, not patent.

That said, gnomes are part of the public domain, in that they are based on ancient mythology - no one can copyright the concept of a 'gnome', only some specific iteration of 'gnome' that is unique to their IP.

Orc or ork might be copyrightable, as it too is derived from older myths, but the modern word itself is unique to Tolkien.

I think that Dragonborne could be copyrighted by WotC potentially.

Remember that these are names only, no copyright could stop anyone from using an analogous version of any of these races. Dragonborne, draconian, dragon-kin - if you give it a new name, no one can stop you from having draconic humanoids, as the concept as a whole is too vague and already in use in far too many works to be considered copyrightable.

[Silverthorn]

NAGA's are also from greek myth. How on earth and in what court could you patent it.

[Incunabulum]

Originally posted by Niob87:

Could Blizzard have a patent on playable orcs, gnomes, and dragon humanoids?

No. You can't actually patent (it would be copyright, not patent) game mechanics.

WB does not own the nemesis system. Other games use it or something similar.

In addition, none of those things were created by Blizzard in the first place.

[RealDealBreaker]

Originally posted by Incunabulum:

Originally posted by Niob87:

Could Blizzard have a patent on playable orcs, gnomes, and dragon humanoids?

No. You can't actually patent (it would be copyright, not patent) game mechanics.

WB does not own the nemesis system. Other games use it or something similar.

In addition, none of those things were created by Blizzard in the first place.

You say that, but WB has been issued the patent (yes patent, not copyright) for the Nemesis AI system. This happened on Feb. 23rd, 2021. Other developers can try and create similar systems, but they would have to be confident that their system had a significant innovation that makes it fundamentally different from WB's Nemesis system.