Guild Wars 2

I am making a indie game project ( extreme low budget and no hope of a hit ). It is just a test run and one of my plot line fits perfectly with the name Sea of Sorrows.

I came up with the name first, then I remembered that GW 2 has the exact name under one of the maps.

I’m sure through out history, there are plenty of “Sea of Sorrows” flying around, but just to be sure, can I use “Sea of Sorrows” commercially? Or is it a violation against copyright laws?

ps: I have no money to ask professionals.

I really don’t see why not if it bears no resemblance to the Sea of Sorrows from GW2. There’s plenty of books out there with the name just by a simple Google search. It really would just depend on the likeness between the two, and thus if yours is an intended copy.

Probably the best way to find out directly is to ask them if the name Sea of Sorrows is copywrited by them or if your project crosses any lines.

community@arena.net from Guild Wars 2 content terms of use

There are a few things lawyers (and judges) ask before worrying about infringement:

• Are you using the name to trade off the notoriety or acclaim or the original?
• Are you competing with the original?
• Will “customers” (readers, viewers, etc) be confused?
• Has the owner of the original taken pains to protect the name (including registering a trademark, defending the name in court, etc)?

So you could use “Sea of Sorrows” without issue as the name of a country-western song ("she left me, afloat in my sea of sorrows, flowing from my tears). In contrast, you’d likely get into trouble using it for the name of a Steam Punk RPG with an epic tale about defeating dragons — not necessarily because you violated something, but because ANet would have little choice but to try and defend their idea against intellectual property theft.

Since your project is a game, you’d have to be more careful than if it were some other form of art. Is your game in the same genre? Does it have a similar epic story? If there are more than a few points of similarity (or the similarities are fundamental), then I would err on the side of caution. If it’s hard to confuse your game with GW2, then there’s unlikely to be an issue.

I was going to write something, but Illconceived Was Na covered it very well.

Just for clarity: It’s actually a question of trademark law, rather than copyright. Copyright would apply to the actual “Sea of Sorrows” novel, or Guild Wars 2 itself. Trademarks, on the other hand, are usually things like names and logos. Both of them, along with patents and a couple other things, fall under the umbrella of intellectual property.