1984 “Wing Commander” Flight-Sim Game?!

A

Ace Rimmer

Spaceman
Can someone please explain why there’s a game called “Wing Commander” that’s copyrighted 1984?

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Title: “Wing Commander”.

Copyright: Thorn EMI Computer Software 1984.

Release year: 1986.

Licensed by: Mastertronic.

Developed by: Creative Sparks CDS.

Created by: E.G.J.Ellis.

Wing_Commander_intro.jpg
 
Why not? There's various non-futuristic-space-sim products named Wing Commander including a novel from only a couple of years ago that are not related to our beloved franchise. Seeing how its a military term and that this game obviously has nothing to do with space cats, there really isn't a risk of getting the two confused. Thus there isn't any real copyright infringement or some such.
 
You generally don't copyright a name, you trademark it -- and you can only enforce a trademark when two products are encroaching on each other in a particular way. There's quite a few 'airplane' related Wing Commanders out there, but since they don't conflict with the Wing Commander space game, there's no legal problem (for instance, there's a novel called Wing Commander and a movie from the 1970s).
 
Yes, it shows up on ebay once in a while. I believe it's a Commodore 64 game, which it should be fairly easy to emulate today. (That said, there's no special desire to -- it's just an old flying game that never won much acclaim...)
 
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