Once considered a mere novelty, video games may have nonetheless evolved into a multi-billion dollar, international industry many find worthy of intellectual property protection.
Accordingly, the World Intellectual Property Organization last week released a multijurisdictional study focusing on approaches to the copyright protection of video games.
The study analyzes the framework in place in more than twenty jurisdictions from all over the world to determine the regime used by each.
The study also looks at the differences in protection between individual elements of a game, such as a song on the soundtrack and the source code, and the game as an assembled whole.
Furthermore, the study looks to the rights of those involved in the making of video games, a cast of individuals that continues grows ever larger along with the complexity of the creations themselves.