Problem
Scenario:
You are employed by an indie game company named Vaiatach. During your weekly design team meeting, you are informed that the owner wants the company to undergo an image change. For years, they have struggled with getting both the company and its products recognized. While the company will not change its name, they need a new logo and want to have some questions answered about creating one. They want five (5) different ideas. This image change will also require updates to the company website which will require contracting with an outside webpage designer.
The second item on the meeting's agenda involves a new product another team has been working on for the past couple of months. They have been busy creating a new first-person shooter game named "Almighty Wizard: The Quickening". It is then that you learn this game will use a proprietary controller designed specifically for the game. The release information, some basic information about the game and a short game trailer will be uploaded to the company website shortly to generate as much hype as possible about these new products.
At the end of the meeting, you are charged with researching the answers to several questions the company owner needs answered prior to the next team meeting.
Task
A. What term describes the information you learned when you were charged with protecting Vaiatach's new products?
B. How should Vaiatach protect their new company logo and image from being misused by other individuals and the outside contractors they hired to build a new website? What steps do they need to take to do so?
C. What kind of legal protections are needed to protect misuse of the company's new image and materials when hiring outside contractors?
D. How can Vaiatach protect their new controller from being made by their competitors?
E. What needs to be done to make sure software pirates can be held responsible for making illegal copies of the game and how does Vaiatach get that protection?