The legal work that actually comes up in games
Most studios need more than a general business lawyer who may possibly know what Steam is. They need someone who already knows what a recoupable advance is, why a work for hire clause often fails to move IP, and what a storefront will ask for before launch.
That is our whole law practice at Legal Moves Law Firm. Video game and board game companies, and not much else.
Protecting what you built
Your studio name and your game titles can function as trademarks. Your art, music, code, and writing are copyrights. They protect different things and they fail in different ways.
Trademarks turn on distinctiveness and on priority, and priority in the US is mostly about who used the name in commerce first, not who filed first. An intent to use application can reserve your place in line from the filing date, but only if you follow through to use and registration.
Either way, clearing a name before you announce is cheap. Having to rebrand after you've released your first trailer is not.
Copyright attaches the moment you fix the work, which is why people assume they are covered and stop there. But the real gap shows up later. Statutory damages and attorneys' fees are barred unless the work was registered before the infringement started, or, for a published work, within 3 months of first publication. Actual damages and an injunction stay available either way. But statutory damages and fees are often what makes a case worth bringing, so your registration timing decides whether you have a realistic claim or an expensive one.
Video game business deals
Publishing agreements are where the money moves, and the clause that decides your outcome is almost never the headline royalty rate. It is the definition of net revenue, what counts as recoupable, and what reverts to you when the deal ends.
Same story with contractors. Paying an artist does not make you the author of their work. Work made for hire is narrow, and it is not something you get by writing the phrase into an invoice. An employee's work inside the scope of their job is different, but a freelancer's usually is not.
What actually moves copyright is an assignment in writing, signed by the person giving up the rights. That is a statutory requirement, not a formality. Without one you can ship a game containing art you do not own.
We draft and review these all the time, so we know what to look for and what to push back on.
Terms, privacy, and platform rules
If your game has accounts, chat, user generated content, or in game purchases, your EULA has some real work to do.
User generated content is the clearest example. If players can make mods, maps, skins, or custom levels, your terms are what let you host that content, show it, and ship it inside your game. Without a license from the player, you are distributing work you do not own. The same few clauses decide whether a creator can take their work elsewhere, and whether you can put it in a trailer.
Storefront requirements move faster than the law does. Disclosure rules for AI generated content are the current example, and the list will be different next year.
When it goes wrong
Someone clones your game. Someone lifts your assets. Someone registers your title as a domain, or files a trademark on it, or files a takedown against your trailer.
We handle demand letters, takedowns and counter notices, domain disputes, and USPTO proceedings including oppositions and cancellations. We will tell you plainly when a matter is worth pursuing and when the cost outruns the recovery, because a lot of them do.