‘Good. Now, I’m not an intellectual property specialist but I can obviously hold my own. I’ve pulled together a plan for due diligence and, loosely, registration of an intellectual property portfolio but that part is pretty fluid, depending on what the due diligence throws up. Of course,mostpeople would have done that due diligence before putting down an obscene about of money for a game.’
‘It wouldn’t be the most costly mistake we’ve ever made if it doesn’t pay off, Scarlett. We stand to lose a lot more if we do nothing.’
I hold a palm in the air. ‘Let’s not go over old ground.’
‘You started?—’
‘You were saying, Scarlett?’ Williams interjects, adjusting his glasses.
Gregory scowls. ‘Go on.’
I take a sip of wine and sit back into my chair. ‘Halt me if I’m teaching my grandmother to suck eggs at any point. I won’t fill you with stuff you don’t need to know. Suffice to say, there are various forms of intellectual property rights: copyright, trademarks, design rights, for example. We can register them all to an extent based on what I’ve seen of the game.’
‘I thought copyright was an automatic right?’ Williams asks.
‘Mm, well, it is. Stuart was a one-man band and from what I know, he wasn’t operating through a company. So yes, copyright vests in him as the creator. But that’s the case under English law. In some jurisdictions, copyright has to be registered, same for trademarks and design rights. And that’s part of the due-diligence jigsaw. I’m sure it’s all fine but we need to confirm that Stuart does actually hold the copyright and other rights in the game. Once we confirm that and assuming we do, we look to registration. I’ve already got a junior looking into Stuart’s ownership.’
‘And what’s the registration plan?’
‘It varies from country to country. If everything goes to plan, we’ll start registering what we can. My suggestion, unless you object, is that we start with China and Europe. Then we move to the US and Australia. Then the rest of the world, to the extent appropriate.’
Gregory rubs his chin. ‘Why do we stage it?’
‘Cost, resource. The applications take time. I need support from local counsel.’
‘Staged is acceptable but I want the US in the first round with China and Europe. Gaming is too big in the US to delay.’
‘I can amend that. Anything else?’
‘What can go wrong?’ Williams asks.
I scoff. ‘There’s a seven hundred and fifty thousand pound question. The main risks are, one: that someone already has a knock-off in the making. They could have reverse-engineered the source code or be at work creating identical concepts. Characters and branding, for example. I guess we have to cross our fingers it hasn’t been on the market long enough for someone to try. The second big risk is that we don’t have the power to register. In other words, if Stuart’s ownership of the game, and therefore Constant Sources’ ownership of the game, is somehow questionable.’
‘How could that happen?’ Gregory asks.
‘Either Stuart never held the rights to the game in the first place, or he had them and licensed or sold them in such a way that Constant Sources could never have acquired them.’
‘And the other risks?’ Gregory presses.
‘We could stumble on something in a particular jurisdiction. Say, I don’t know,elementsofBlack Diamondshave already been registered. But we’ll cross that bridge if we come to it. First step is to check Stuart’s authority to sell to Constant Sources. Second step is to set out what rights we need to register in the various jurisdictions. I’ve already put the feelers out with local counsel.’
‘How much is this going to cost me: tens of or hundreds of?’
‘All being well, tens of.’
Gregory nods and takes a sip from his freshly topped-up wine. ‘Fine.’
‘You don’t want to know how many tens of?’
‘If we’re not talking hundreds, that’s micro detail. I’m a macro man.’
‘When I work for you, I’ll be taking much tighter control of your legal spend, Ryans.’
‘Someone probably should,’ he says with humour in his voice.
‘Okay. If we’re done. I’m going to get changed and join Amanda.’ I ruffle his hair and drop a kiss to his scalp.
* * *
