Does rebuilding a computer game from scratch infringe copyright?
<p>A game named Blinx, was manufactured last in 2004 by a company named Microsoft. In 2014-2015 they dropped the trademark, and so the name is usable, but the game, the intellectual material is copyrighted. If I don't use their images or their code, can I legally reproduce the game?</p>

<p>If you mean to "<em>make a game with the same game rules and logic, but with new code &amp; new graphics</em>", then yes, you can.</p>

<p>Copyright protects an expression of an idea, but not the idea itself. In the context of game development, an <em>idea</em> can be tic-tac-toe game. I write a webpage with JavaScript to play the game, that is my <em>expression</em>. You cannot reproduce my webpage without my consent, but you are free to code an exact replica of the game say, in iOS.</p>

<p>To prevent someone from making a game with the exact (or very similar) rules, you'd need a patent. Two famous games which are patented are "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly_(game)" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Monopoly</a>" (they got the name right!) and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Tetris</a>*. There is a reason why you see people making many Reversi, Sudoku, Tic-Tac-Toe etc implementations in the app store, but not Monopoly and Tetris.</p>

<p><sub>*Technically, Tetris is not protected by patent, only by copyright. Many developers have <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tetris_Company" rel="nofollow noreferrer">rejected the company's copyright infringement claims</a> as game design is not covered by copyright.</sub></p>

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