Hey Paizo,
I love your Pathfinder stuff. My group has been devouring every little tidbit of it. A few of us have been tossing around the idea of making up a small publishing company to create some Pathfinder Compatible stuff.
We know that your artwork is yours, and you don't let anyone use it in products. However, we are curious about the background textures you use in your campaign setting/beastiary. Are those covered under the same rules as your art?
As I said, we want to make a few adventures, cards, pdfs, etc. But we'd like to keep them in the same style as your current stuff. If we're not able to use the same texture as yours, are we allowed to mimic your style in our Pathfinder Compatible products?
Chris
Not Paizo, so they'll have to give you the official answer, but what you are referring to is called "trade dress" and it is indeed protected content along with the more obvious artwork. You would have to have written permission from Paizo to use it, and that's pretty hard to come by (reason being is it identifies a product as coming from/endorsed by Paizo and they have high quality standards). See the Product Identity statement at the front of any Paizo product for an example of the legal language used. I have seen some companies make trade dress available--Talisman Studios, for instance, sells a line of trade dress for fantasy, sci-fi, and horror. But most companies control it fairly tightly as part of their marketing/brand identity.
Thanks for the comment/answer Erian. Looks like I learned a new term "trade dress".
Does that mean I'm unable to use (similiar) fonts, backgrounds, right margin floral/spiral design, in anything I make for Pathfinder?
Thanks for the comment/answer Erian. Looks like I learned a new term "trade dress".
Does that mean I'm unable to use (similiar) fonts, backgrounds, right margin floral/spiral design, in anything I make for Pathfinder?
That will depend on what you mean by similar. Taking the Core Rulebook as an example, if you use a common sans-serif font that is public domain (Arial, Helvetica, etc.), a "stained paper" or similar texture for the overall page (there are tons available on line for free that are public domain), and have a fairly standard calligraphy/ornamental border (also tons for free in the public domain) that's no problem. If your texture and borders happen to match Paizo's exactly, but are a different shade, and your font selection includes one that is near-identical to the distinctive Pathfinder logo font, then you're going to be in more difficult ground. This is especially so if you're trying to sell Pathfinder-compatible products, as folks will instantly notice the similarity.
The Paizo Publishing, LLC Pathfinder® Roleplaying Game Compatibility License is a good place to see all the legalese involved in producing Pathfinder-compatible products. You'll want someone in your group that understands this sort of thing, or else get some independent legal advice, if you want to move into serious publishing.
Thanks again!
Creative Director
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Erian_7 is correct; our trade dress is as key and important to Pathfinder products as our art, and while we give away some of the logos and art and stuff on our Community Use site, we don't really want folks copying the exact look of our products since that would confuse the marketplace, in theory. You can do something similar, but you can't copy it. And the more public and the more "for sale" the product is, the more it's going to ruffle feather at Paizo.