Do i have to pay royalty to put real guns that exist today in my game?

Rock Bottom

Hey i am busy making a game with a couple of friends and was asking around. Do i have to pay royalty to put real guns that exist today with their intended names? Although i kind of know that the name is a Trademark so i would have to pay for that but do i also have to pay for the appearance? i noted that in Counter Strike the guns look identical to the real ones but have different names for instance the CV-47 is actually the AK-47. please anyone let us know thank you.

sprunghunt

Yes this is done for legal reasons. A lot of guns will also be slightly different from a real gun as well for this reason. Some games have licenced weapons though. For example SWAT4 has a Colt licence.

It's unlikely that a gun company would get very upset over a non-commercial project though. There's not much money in starting a lawsuit against people who aren't getting paid.

edit: also I'd like to point out that there can be a commercial advantage to creating your own designs. if you make your own designs and you're succesful you can sell them later as merchandising!

imperator_dk

Glock for one acitvely pursues studio's that actively use the likeness (not even the name) in their games. They are the only company i know this of though.

Ghostscape

If you're making a non-commercial game, put them in and bait a cease-and-desist. If you get one, adhere to it and make changes, if you don't, then you're OK.

If you're selling the game, then your best bet is to go for something near, but not exact. Look at the cars in Burnout, Saints Row, GTA, etc - they've got visual cues that are similar to certain cars, but they're unique enough to not require licenses.

Just changing the name isn't enough to dodge the issue legally.