Intellectual property

(BWM) Blight Wheel Miniatures, the Blight Wheel Miniatures logo, and all other marks appearing on this site (unless otherwise indicated) are copyrights or trademarks of Blight Wheel Miniatures. This site and all subject matter, artwork, text and imagery it contains are the exclusive property of Blight Wheel Miniatures. © Copyright Blight Wheel Miniatures 2011 and may not be copied, reproduced, republished, uploaded, posted, transmitted or distributed in any way.

WHAT IS IP? (IP) = (Intellectual Property) Wikipedia defines: (IP) are legal property rights over creations of the mind, both artistic and commercial, and the corresponding fields of law. Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; ideas, discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Common types of intellectual property include copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and trade secrets. The majority of intellectual property rights provide creators of original works economic incentive to develop and share ideas through a form of temporary monopoly. We do not relinquish any of our rights or protections under the law and reserve the right to legal action at any time. Any use of our IP, copyrights or trademarks for the use of personal financial gain will result in an immediate cease and desist request followed by legal action if required. Any attempt to claim ownership or dilute BWM property or branding will not be tolerated. Any counterfeiting of BWM IP for sale or personal use will be prosecuted; we will request criminal charges be filed and we will file civil claims seeking the maximum legal fees and damages allowable by law.

WHAT I CAN DO WITH BLIGHTWHEEL MINIATURES IP Counterfeiting aside, we take a fairly lenient approach to the use of our IP in order to foster creativity and the growth of the gaming industry. The creation of fan art, forums, stories, battle reports and fiction is taken on a case-by-case basis. We will object to the use of our IP if the material is found to be offensive. We ask that you not make changes to BWM IP, logos, art and that you do not claim ownership of any BWM IP. The customization of a purchased BWM model is allowed and greatly encouraged, adding bits, custom paint and your own flair are a big part of the hobby. Regrettably, we cannot host pictures of your model on our site if it contains other companies IP but you may link to such images.

AUTHORIIZED E-TAILERS AND RETAILERS May use our logos, text, images to enhance their ability to market our product.

WHAT I CANNOT DO WITH BLIGHT WHEEL MINIATURES IP Counterfeiting, recasting, whatever you want to call it: If you make a mold and make a copy of a model in part or in whole, regardless of whether or not it was for personal use or financial gain you have clearly broken the law. Using a BWM kit as a base to work from (adding your own details and bits) and then recasting the model for personal use or financial gain is also clearly copyright infringement and we will seek civil and criminal damages. One off creations: If you make a model that is not substantively different and/or is blatantly a copy of our IP, we reserve the right to protect our IP. If you make a model that is so close to BWM IP that someone would likely mistake it for BWM IP you have likely violated copyright or trade, dress laws and we reserve the right to protect our IP. CAD, 3d or other digital models: We will likely license or sell our digital models in the future, so we take the digital IP infringement as seriously as physical “real world models”. Digital models, cardboard or paper kits created and distributed for personal use or financial gains are copyright infringement and we reserve the right to protect our IP. Model Conversion Kits: We do not allow unlicensed third parties to manufacture or produce conversion kits for our models. We need to be able to control our product quality and all derivatives in order to produce products for years to come. We are constantly taking requests for new kits or conversion kits and would be happy to receive your input.

What the heck? Almost anything I do with your kit is IP infringement… It is very simple. The golden rule is if you use our kit modified or not, to make a mold to duplicate a kit in part or in whole, for personal use or financial gain, you have broken the law and infringed on our IP. If you make a digital medium, model or art and you distribute the image or file free or for gain, you are diluting our IP and if we do not challenge the infringement of our IP there is a possibility of losing our rights to our own creation. Selling BWM kits on E-bay or other sites We have no problems with you listing you assembled or unassembled kits for sale or trade, we only ask that you do not use our icons, or artwork. You must take the pictures of your kit yourself. We also understand that these sites are often the preferred outlets for counterfeiters/re-casters and we may purchase suspicious looking kits to verify their authenticity, if found to be fraudulent we will seek legal action to obtain the source manufacturer and seek civil and criminal charges.