Sprocket Rocket Design and Conquer is a game on the Wallace and Gromit website in which the player can “create” and learn about intellectual property as they play.  Before the player starts, they are encouraged to create a logo using any text they’d like from a combination of text styles and colors provided by the game developer. Once the player picks his logo, the game stamps it with the “TM” – the international abbreviation for trademark. As the player plays the game, they fly a ship through different levels and build different gadgets on their ship to beat different obstacles on each level. Once a player makes an improvement to the ship, the game stamps it with a patent pending – something an inventor would do if they filed a patent application that has yet to be granted. Finally, certain checkpoints in the game state the British intellectual property law.

But is the player really creating IP as they are playing? Sure it’s just an educational game meant to introduce the basics of intellectual property law, but let’s put it to the test. Intellectual property governs territorially. We’ll use U.S. law to analyze this question, because, although the site references U.K. law, this blog and I, as a player, are located in the U.S.

First, let’s look at the logo the user creates. To have a trademark under U.S. law, the trademark owner must use it in commerce. The player is not selling anything, so the logo is just a fun step in playing the game.

Next, the improvements made to the ship are not patentable. Patented items must be a new and useful invention. Although the items are useful in the game, they are not useful in the real world.  The video game player isn’t an inventor building something new with any real world application. The video game programmer created the obstacles in anticipation that the player will use their program to get around these obstacles. It is the programmer that is the author of the program. Computer programs are considered protectable under copyright, since any original expression in a fixed tangible medium automatically gets copyright protection in the U.S. without registration. Technically, the Sprocket Rocket is a copyrighted video game, and any moves that the player makes would be part of that video game program. So, any sorts of improvements to the ship would be considered part of the video game and not really the player’s own invention.

Finally, the Sprocket Rocket is part of the Wallace and Gromit website. The absent-minded inventor Wallace and intelligent dog Gromit are clay animation characters protected by their own separate trademarks and copyrights. Although they do not appear in the actual video game, the video game references Wallace and Gromit. The game is sponsored by the Wallace and Gromit characters – as well as these trademarks and copyrights.

Although there is no real IP assigned to the player in the virtual property they create, Sprocket Rocket is an addictive puzzle game that can help players navigate through some IP law as they cruise through levels. You can thank the game’s creator and his IP for this new obsession.