Capstone

Capstone: Lumen Atelier

Lumen Atelier Ltd is an invented studio run by Ines and Tomas Varga. It makes a puzzle game called Lantern Hollow and sells related merchandise. Its assets are these. The logo was drawn by Ines’s friend Jora, as a favour, with no paperwork. The core engine module was written by a freelance developer, Pavel, under an email exchange about the fee. Pavel’s module uses a library released under a strong copyleft licence. Tomas invented a method for syncing room lighting with game events, and showed a working demonstration at a convention four months ago. The studio’s level-generation method has never been published and is known to three staff. One of them, Dara, has just left to join a rival and took the files on a memory stick. In another country a company sells a game called Lantern Hollows with a similar logo, and a marketplace seller offers knock-off merchandise with the game’s art. An investor wants due diligence within three weeks. You are asked to advise. Use the six questions from Module 1 and the three tools. The facts are invented, the tools use simplified rules, and the place whose law governs is left open, so state your assumptions as you go.

General education on intellectual property law, using invented businesses, people and figures. It states common principles in simplified form and does not describe any one country’s law, which differs and changes; rules on registration, ownership, infringement and remedies are strict and local. It is not legal advice. Consult a qualified lawyer in the place that matters.