Bad Dogs

This month's Game Law column addresses a very touchy subject, especially for us lawyers -- the training and care of your lawyer. I am a firm believer that, just like a kid and a dog, every game studio should have its pet lawyer to keep it safe and secure.

One to be your friend and companion... and when appropriate, to bark and growl at those who try to do you harm.

It is also a sad but true fact that, just like with dogs, not all lawyers are well-behaved and, if not properly trained, can at times cause more harm than good.

Just like any good dog, they need to be trained, disciplined and under control, or they might just bite you!

Sure, lawyers get plenty of legal training in law school and in their day to day practice.

But too often they don't know your desires or the games you work on as well as you do. And few understand the subtleties of our industry as much as the developers they represent.

They are ingrained with a commitment to vigorously protect their client's right to the fullest extent possible. In fact, it is a core element of their ethic. Oddly enough, it is this training and commitment that can often result in serious problems for the developers they represent.

Biting Your Team

One of the most common ways this occurs is in the relationship between the studio and its employees. Game development is a creative process based on intellectual capital. It requires the collaborative effort of many creative individuals.

It is also in large part grounded in a culture that has non-traditional values when compared to most other businesses. And although not everyone in the game industry is "of the gamer culture," most of those who create the games are. Moreover, experience shows that often, enlightened non-traditional management models create the best environments for creating great games.

A well-meaning attorney experienced with traditional employment agreements, working to protect his client's studio to the maximum extent possible, will usually come up with an employee agreement that is offensive to both the sensibilities of the most talented developers and contrary to an enlightened management style.

If the studio head just asks a lawyer for an employee agreement and does not describe the cultural and management goals of the studio, the result will be a contract that will quite likely interfere with the studio's ability to get and retain talent.

The inclusion of non-competes and overly broad intellectual property ownership that extends outside of the scope of the studio's project can often bruise or even break employee relationships and make it difficult or impossible to get top talent.

This is especially sad if the studio ends up with a bad result because it just used an employee agreement without going over it with the attorney to make sure that it is consistent with their management style and goals.

This is like just letting your dog run free. It's sure to chew up some of your favorite shoes if you don't discipline that critter as to what is, and is not, acceptable behavior on your household. Your studio is your house. You, not your pet, need to set the rules.