Playing cards copyright/trademark
by Gregory Stewart · in Torque Game Builder · 10/16/2005 (11:22 am) · 11 replies
Does anybody know the legal aspects behind playing card images? The traditional King, queen, jack, etc seem to be used by many different companies with no mention of copyright or trademark.
A pack of Bicycle cards says the following:
"We claim exclusive trade mark rights in Ace of Spades, Joker, name, number, back design, case design, and name of finish used on our various cards."
This seems to confirm my guess... The only thing that is copyright or trademark in a pack of "standard" looking cards is the joker, ace of spades, and back design. The only thing I have a question on is "number". Does anybody know if this refers to the font they use, or does it mean the number that appears on the case and on the joker card? (for example, standard Bicycle cards have "808" on them).
I am interested in creating a card game and just want to make sure I'm on sound legal ground.
A pack of Bicycle cards says the following:
"We claim exclusive trade mark rights in Ace of Spades, Joker, name, number, back design, case design, and name of finish used on our various cards."
This seems to confirm my guess... The only thing that is copyright or trademark in a pack of "standard" looking cards is the joker, ace of spades, and back design. The only thing I have a question on is "number". Does anybody know if this refers to the font they use, or does it mean the number that appears on the case and on the joker card? (for example, standard Bicycle cards have "808" on them).
I am interested in creating a card game and just want to make sure I'm on sound legal ground.
#2
10/16/2005 (3:08 pm)
Thanks for the info. I did a couple of google searches and couldn't find anything, but I didn't specifically search for "playing card design".. I think I'll try that. Thanks again.
#3
10/31/2005 (8:53 am)
Yea I think your safe. There are so many card games would take a million lawsuits....
#4
11/16/2006 (7:41 am)
Have you found and cards you can download in png or any photoshop supported format?
#6
04/23/2007 (4:36 pm)
I was wondering if anyone knew of any playing cards that used the theatre faces ( the happy and sad face I don't remember what it's refered to as) I was thinking of using those on my jokers but thought I might have seen a set of cards that did that once and didn't want to push the limit on any copyrights. 
#7
For anyone looking for a pre-made Sprite Sheet of Playing Cards, for prototyping or what ever else ... I've created and uploaded the playing card sprite sheet I use on my GGE profile -- the card faces were retrieved from a 'free to use' resource, although, I can't remember for the life of me which one or where ...
It's probably also good to note, the Card Shuffling code I wrote and posted a while back, uses this same sprite sheet ...
04/23/2007 (4:45 pm)
J, the use of the Theatre Masks as joker faces can't be copyrighted ... the Theatre Masks themselves are non-copyrightable and your free to use them as you wish ... so long as your not designed your cards to be exact duplicates of those that you "think" you saw ... you'll be fine.For anyone looking for a pre-made Sprite Sheet of Playing Cards, for prototyping or what ever else ... I've created and uploaded the playing card sprite sheet I use on my GGE profile -- the card faces were retrieved from a 'free to use' resource, although, I can't remember for the life of me which one or where ...
It's probably also good to note, the Card Shuffling code I wrote and posted a while back, uses this same sprite sheet ...
#8
05/01/2007 (2:27 pm)
Thank you for the heads up on that, it's good to know I can use those images.
#9
Not to burst anyone's bubble here, but aren't those cards from Microsoft's Solitaire program? They look exactly the same. I believe they were created by Susan Kare for Microsoft. There's some info on this web page:
www.jfitz.com/cards/index.html
-Greg
07/28/2007 (11:11 am)
David,Not to burst anyone's bubble here, but aren't those cards from Microsoft's Solitaire program? They look exactly the same. I believe they were created by Susan Kare for Microsoft. There's some info on this web page:
www.jfitz.com/cards/index.html
-Greg
#10
I obtaind those card images from a website that claimed they were 'free for any use'. I actually had to put the cards in the layout that you see, as they were separated by suit when I obtained them -- so, I made the tile single image you see there.
07/28/2007 (12:08 pm)
Gregory,I obtaind those card images from a website that claimed they were 'free for any use'. I actually had to put the cards in the layout that you see, as they were separated by suit when I obtained them -- so, I made the tile single image you see there.
#11
07/28/2007 (1:59 pm)
Ok, no biggie. I just wanted to point that out. 
Torque Owner Darren Stuart
The history of card design started in the 1800's. There is no copyright for a pack of cards or standard designs. its like chess pieces no one owns the rights to chess.
Each card maker copyrights thier own designs.
I would just create your own. I used the symbol font on windows as a starting point. You can buy card fonts that look pretty good.
google playing card design it brings up a lot of interesting stuff on the subject.