Updated July 12th, 2022

THE MOST CRITICAL PART of any business are its customers. For a tabletop gaming company, a vital extension of our customers are player communities and the personal creativity that some unleash in context of our games and universes.

Ghost Galaxy (“GG”) wants to support good-faith community engagement in, and fan-creation uses of, our copyrights, trademarks, or patents (in aggregate, our intellectual property or “IP”). However, such use of IP can quickly enter a murky territory in which GG must take legal action to protect our IP.

This Intellectual Property Use policy aims to clarify what GG considers permissible use of our IP by players and player communities. This policy does not grant or convey any rights in the IP to any third party. It is not a license. GG unilaterally reserves the right to change this policy at any time.

Be aware that this policy addresses only intellectual property owned by GG. Some intellectual property imbued in our products may belong to third parties. We do not represent such third parties in this policy, and use of their intellectual property is entirely at your own risk.

While this policy may be updated from time to time, please note that GG will not clarify any point of this policy in direct correspondence (via our contact page, or elsewhere), or grant permissions on specific inquiries made to us related hereto.

Use of the IP is at your own risk. If you’re unsure whether your project falls within the permissible guidelines of this policy, we suggest that you do not proceed. If you’re interested in formally licensing our IP, please contact us here.

For more information about using intellectual property, please visit the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office at www.uspto.gov and the U.S. Copyright Office at www.copyright.gov.

Fan Creations

A “Fan Creation” is something that a player, fan, or group has created using GG’s proprietary images, graphics, text, methods of play, or other IP.
Types of Fan Creations may be, but is not limited to, fiction, alternate or expanded methods of play, media (podcasts, websites, etc.), posters, apparel, accessories, crafted components, costumes, or foods (such a cakes, cookies, etc.).

Permissible Use

GG finds Fan Creations to be permissible only when all the following points are true:

1. That Fan Creations are not made available for sale, either by monetary transaction or for other exchange of value. Prohibited exchanges include, but are not limited to, bundling Fan Creations with other products or services, placement of Fan Creations behind a “pay wall” service, request for donations in exchange for Fan Creations, attainment of advertising revenue from display of Fan Creations.
2. That Fan Creations are not displayed or presented in such a manner which GG deems to be offensive, pornographic, or otherwise objectionable.
3. That credit is given to GG in the form of legal attribution. As a guide, please observe GG’s own use as presented in its products or websites. (An example being “KeyForge is a Registered Trademark of Ghost Galaxy, Inc. 2022 All Rights Reserved.”)
4. That Fan Creations, or the milieu surrounding Fan Creations is not presented as “official”, “sanctioned”, “sponsored”, “licensed” (or similar), by GG, its affiliates, or business partners.
5. That use of the IP in Fan Creations is limited in scope and cannot act as a substitute for GG’s own, or GG’s licensee’s, products or services (this includes substitution by conversion to other media, such as digitization).

Media Use

As an exception to Point 1 of “Permissible Use”, Fan Creations may be included in advertising (or donation) supported media provided that the presentation/hosting of Fan Creations on said media is not the dominant or specific cause for the advertising income.

General Event Use

An exception to Point 1 of “Permissible Use” is made for ticket sales revenue collected by gaming conventions or similar public events which contain Fan Creations as part of their program of activities/exhibits, provided the Fan Creations are but one of many attractions of the event, and not a primary focus.

Tournaments and “Fan Events”

An exception to Point 1 of “Permissible Use” is made for ticket sales revenue for tournaments (or other form of organized play or celebrations) that specifically focus on GG’s IP (and therefore is considered a Fan Creation in their own right) provided that a) the recipient of the proceeds is not a business or individual taking direct or indirect profit from the event, and that b) substantially all of the ticket proceeds is spent on direct costs incurred in planning and hosting the event.