vehicle, the key point is to ensure include graphics (including that the IPR ownership is clearly potentially individual frames documented in a signed written of gameplay), music and other agreement. Without clear ownership audio, characters (both their visual of the appropriate rights, realising appearance and their detailed the value of the IPRs in games will background and character traits), be challenging. narratives/plots, dialogue and other Licensing deals are typically how text featured in a game. They may the value in games is leveraged, with also include drawings, graphics, text most developers and businesses and software code created during entering into these arrangements the development of a game. There to facilitate a game’s distribution. may also be copyright in a sound However, if the ownership of relevant recording or audio-visual recording IPRs is unclear, these deals quickly of a video game. become unworkable. The work must be ‘original’ to be protected, meaning that it The main types of IPRs – was created using skill, judgment, in detail effort and some level of individual creativity. Copyright Copyright provides protection Copyright automatically arises against copying of the relevant upon creation. It is a national right ‘work’. This includes exact copies so the rules as to the subsistence (eg pirate versions of a game or and scope of protection differ unauthorised merchandise featuring country-by-country, though there’s a a game character) and can also degree of international and EU-wide include non-identical similar copies harmonisation. In the UK there is no depending on how close the copy is register of copyright, unlike in some to the original and what aspects of other jurisdictions, eg the US. the original the copy reproduces. Relevant copyright ‘works’ may 126