[casual_games] Meet Publishers & Distributors AND Protect my IP ?... and other questions!

[James Terry]

You have a working prototype, which is great, demos/prototypes go a lot
further than just an idea, or a design, or a movie.

I've linked this here before, but I'll link it again

http://www.igda.org/biz/submission_guide.php

It has a section on NDA's, primarily pointing out that:
"While protecting a developer's intellectual property interest in a game
is important, focusing heavily on having an NDA in place too early in
the publishing process is likely counterproductive for the following
reasons: (i) legal protection may be available to the developer even
without an NDA; (ii) NDAs are notoriously difficult to enforce; and
(iii) an NDA is only the first small step on the road to having a title
published."

And also that:
"An important point for a developer to recognize, however, is that to a
large extent, NDAs and even intellectual property laws do not protect
"ideas" as such.  Moreover, an established publisher has typically
received so many submissions that relatively few "ideas" are actually
original.  Therefore, the fear that a publisher will "rip off" a
developer's idea is largely unfounded. "

The document also has a good bit of information about preparing a pitch,
from a sales sheet to a design overview to demos and movies.

James R. Terry
 
Yatec, LLC
11606 Southfork, Suite 300
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70816
Phone: (225) 274-1550
Fax: (225) 274-1650
 
jterry at yatecgames.com 
-----Original Message-----
From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org
[mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Eric Trudel
Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2007 8:31 AM
To: Casual_Games at igda.org
Subject: [casual_games] Meet Publishers & Distributors AND Protect my IP
?... and other questions!

I plan to go to the casual connect meeting in Seattle next month. 

I plan to meet publishers and distributors and pitch our working
prototype.
But I want to keep my IP and not be scared that I will be shoved off and
my
game idea stolen and beaten to the market by some publisher with a lot
of
cash and no ethics. 

My questions are to other fellow developers: 

1- Should I make them sign and NDA before the meeting? How does that
work
usually?
2- Any good NDA template for that type of meeting?
3- How do you usually prepare for those meetings? (15 minutes game
elevator
pitch) 
4- What do publishers and distributors want to know during those
meetings?
5- Any dos and donts?

Thanks a lot for your input. 


Eric

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