INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY POLICY

MK GAMES INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY GUIDE

FIRST A LITTLE ABOUT MK GAMES

MK Games is essentially just me Martin Knight and my Games. I am a very small self-publishing, self-employed games designer. I started out making free print and play games in my spare time and uploading them to Board Game Geek. I gained huge success with a pen and paper dungeon crawler game in 2018 called D100 Dungeon. D100 Dungeon was first published as a free print and play game in 2017 and after a year it gained popularity enough to reach the number one slot on the board game geeks' "The Hotness" list. From then on I have been creating, designing, and publishing games full time. I now have no free time at all, because I am a web developer, a publisher, a designer, an author, a YouTube creator, an accountant, an advertising executive, and a social media administrator for my games. Despite having no spare time, I am loving every minute of the work it takes to bring my games and ideas to players across the globe.

HOW YOU CAN HELP SUPPORT ME

I understand a large part of enjoying a game is not just about playing; its also about creating, discussing, and being part of a community that also enjoys the game too. From home-brew rules, creating web pages, video content, podcasts, forum posts, and using social media to discuss experiences. In addition its always very appealing to create custom accessories, artwork, player aids, and printouts for the games we love.

I fully support fan made content and enjoy seeing the things you create. However, sometimes something may be made that unintentionally overlooks my intellectual property, and can be damaging to my continued support of my games. I have therefore made the policy below as a guide to what is sustainable when making third-party content for the games I create, and I would be grateful if you would cooperate when creating third-party/fan/home-made content for my games.

MARTIN KNIGHT'S INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY POLICY

This policy is not a license agreement and I reserve the right to require you to stop using, or sharing (In any type of format) my intellectual property for any reason. The following policy is a guideline only and designed to help you to avoid infringements of my intellectual property and possibly being served a cease-and-desist notice.

Note: Using my intellectual property is always at your own risk, and it's always up to you to consider this policy in relation to what you may have created using my intellectual property. I cannot always answer specific questions relating to this policy and it is up to you to consider if you are infringing upon my intellectual property or not. To help you make this decision please take a look at the Patents, trade marks, copyright and designs information on https://www.gov.uk/ website, and visit the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office at www.uspto.gov and the U.S. Copyright Office at www.copyright.gov.

The Policy below applies to Inellectual Property for Martin Knight (MK GAMES)

Anything contained within this policy where I make reference to "I", "myself", "me", or "MK GAMES" is in reference to myself: Martin Knight.
Anything you create must be for your own personal use. However, I understand that things you make are often projects that other players will appreciate. You may only share them providing they are without re-enumeration (See 6) and providing they do not compete with a product or part of a product that I have already published. For instance: I make a tracker mat for D100 Space and would consider a fan made accessory that also tracks the game's elements as a competing product to the mat I have published. Anything you do create and share that does compete with a product that I have published can potentially cost me a sale and make it harder for me to continue publishing and designing games.
Anything you create for your own personal use that does contain my intellectual property is fine, but you must not share, or sell it. If you want to take a picture or make a video about your creation, then that is fine, go ahead and tell the world, but on the condition that any of my intellectual property may not be reproduced. For instance: You have just remade the monster cards from the D100 Dungeon Mapping Game and they look fantastic. You make a video to show how amazing they are on YouTube. This is fine if the cards can't be taken as stills from the video and reproduced; perhaps the footage shows the cards skewed, or some of the information is covered by other cards. It's not okay if each card is shown flat, at full screen resolution and can easily be removed as stills and reproduced.
You may not replicate rules, text (or translated text), or artwork from my books, or products. References to rules are fine, but the rules should not be reproduced. For instance: In D100 Dungeon the rules for creating an adventurer step 1.Characteristics reads word for word: "There are 3 characteristics used in the game, Strength (Str), Dexterity (Dex) and Intelligence (Int). When a player creates an adventurer for the first time they assign any one characteristic with 50 primary points, another with 40 points, and the remaining characteristic with 30 primary points. How these are assigned is entirely up to you; for instance, a player could apply 50 points to Str, 40 to Dex and 30 to Int, or 50 to Dex, 40 to Int and 30 toStr, the choice is yours." However, you could use the following: "When you create an adventurer you choose 50,40, and 30 for your primary characteristics (see page 10, Creating An Adventurer in the main D100 Dungeon rulebook)."
Anything you create that is shared must be clearly marked as "FAN MADE" or "UNOFFICIAL". You may not use the MK GAMES logo, or pass off your creation as an official product of MK GAMES, or me. You may not label your creation with any endorsement or sponsorship of MK GAMES or myself, unless this has been made by arrangement with myself. In addition, you must always include the game it has been created for and your name. You may also like to consider adding a version number in case you decide to update your creation at a later time. For instance: John smith has created a fan made version of table E - Encounter from D100 Dungeon. He marks at the top of the page: FAN MADE for D100 Dungeon (Table E v1.0) John Smith.
You may not sell or receive any remuneration for your creation in any form; such as: money exchanging hands, crowd fundraising like Kickstarter or Gamefound, request donations via a Patreon account, or any other monetary sponsorship or earnings. This includes remuneration from a product you sell which also includes a creation you've made for one of my games that is given away free.
If you include artwork or written words other than which you have created yourself, you are solely responsible for receiving the permission to use their intellectual property. I take no responsibility for any infringement you make of anyone else's intellectual property. Where possible, you should always give credit to the owner of the intellectual property.
You are free to create podcasts, videos, livestreams, written articles, and make reviews of my games, However, you may not receive remuneration from these (see step 6).
You are permitted to create your own home-brewed rules, stories, artwork, scenarios, and make your own tables, and fantasy worlds providing they do not contain references or content relating to the lore of my games. For instance: Creating a story set on the continent of Northreach from D100 Dungeon would not be permitted. However, creating a table to be used in place of table EA - Encounter A from The Adventurer's Companion would be fine.
You may not create and share Apps, or Web Apps of my games. You may not create and share digital versions of accessories, or digital tools to be used in my games.
You must never include sexist, racist, homophobic, or transphobic content in your creation for my games.