NORWAY Law and Practice Contributed by: Kari Gimmingsrud, Stian Hultin Oddbjørnsen and Andreas Bernt, Haavind
industry, and may instruct businesses to change practices and issue fines; and • the Gaming Authority, which has enforcement powers in matters relating to the Gambling Act, and has powers to issue bans and fines. The regulatory bodies have initiated very few enforcement actions directly towards the com - puter gaming industry. This is partly because the Norwegian gaming industry is a minor player in the games played by Norwegian consumers, and partly because of the lack of sector-specific reg - ulations. However, the Consumer Authority par - ticipates in international co-operations and often addresses issues relating to games through EU co-operation bodies for co-ordinated actions. The Gaming Authority is very active in enforcing Intellectual property in game development is subject to the general IP legislation and is not specifically regulated. One of the most common IP challenges faced by game developers is the lack of clear chain of title to developed games. The Norwegian copyright legislation has strict rules on agreements relating to the total transfer of copyright from the original authors to an employer, and unclear or insuffi - cient contracts in early phases of development are often an issue. rules regarding gambling. 9.3 Intellectual Property The use of foreign law-based contracts with creators might create further uncertainty in the chain of title, as US-style contracts may con - tain rights regulations that are at odds with local law. The most important thing computer game developers can do to secure their rights is to be diligent in their contract and chain of title work.
Norway does not require the registration of cop - yright, and copyright thus exists from the time of creation. This also means that developers need to be diligent in securing rights to early phase developments of a game, to avoid chain of title issues in later phases. Regulation of the use of copyrighted material from others in games is generally in line with har - monised European legislation, where commonly used exceptions are the panorama exception, the caricature/parody/pastiche exception, quo - tations for inclusion in other works and inciden - tal or minor inclusion of copyrighted material in other works. Trade mark law is also harmonised with Euro - pean law; however, Norway is not part of the EU trade mark system, which means that registra - tion must be done locally to obtain protection in Norway. Trade marks can protect the unique branding elements associated with a video game, such as names, logos, symbols, catch - phrases and in-game elements. As for the use of third-party trade marks in games, the grey areas that exist in most European jurisdictions also exist in Norway. User-generated content will normally be the cop - yright of the user, and not the game developer or distributor. This means that having clear and concise terms and conditions for user-generated content is key if the distributor wishes to have control over or licensed rights to user-generated content. In general, Norwegian copyright law offers extensive protection to original creators (and users will often be original creators), so local guidance on terms and conditions relating to user-generated content is advised.
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