i am trying to make a car game , and im using reference images of cars from popular manufacturers … i am going to make theym stylized but the similarity might be visible .but i wont be using the company names , logos or anything like that .
will i get sued by companies ,if i realease them in a commercial game ?
thats up to the individual car company. its not something epic or someone from the community can really answer. your basically saying if i break the law will i get caught. i imagine that your probably a single dev or a small team working on a small project, so your not really a value target to the car company but you will probably get a cease and desist before major legal action. you could always reach out to the companies customer service and ask them as well.
honestly if you have to ask if youll get sued then you probably shouldnt be doing it.
ThompsonN13: seriously? He’s not saying “if i break the law will i get caught”! He’s not saying he’s doing something against the law as you claim he did, he wants to know if it would be against the law. There’s a huge difference! Your second last sentence about reaching out to the companies would have sufficed!
It depends, if you are not using any actual logo or names, and they just look simular then you will be fine. Just look at grand theft auto, they have cars in there that are obviously inspired by certain real cars but they make up their own brand names and models, and change the look slightly.
But im not a lawyer, and probably nobody here is, so honestly do not take my word or anybody elses (even if they say they are a lawyer) this is the wrong place to ask this, this type of question should always be taken to a lawyer if you are serious, thats just a cost of doing proper business.
Here is a good epic stream with one of epics own lawyers on this topic you should check out:
i was expressing my opinion on the matter. sure i probably came on a bit strong ill admit that. im sure between the stylized bits and all they would probably be fine too. its not a call i can make definitively and to me its better to err on the side of caution. the point here is that theres a better way to go about it like contacting the companies and seeing what they think. maybe make a mockup that you could share with them and share how you plan to use the assets you create. itd be a shame to work on something for so long then have a judge decide it looks just enough like someone elses ip that you lose all your hard work and have to pay out.
edit: also we are talking about international trademark law right now which im sure has many differences depending on the country. your swiss, the poster is indian, im american. peoples views will be greatly different depending on their location. people in the US can be quite sue happy.