Rack's latest post about RBI t-shirts got me thinking about this again. Does anyone have the legal knowledge or contacts to figure out exactly what the status is of the RBI copyrights and/or trademarks (although I doubt they have any trademarks, and even if they did, they'd probably be void due to non-enforcement)? Since Tengen no longer exists, I don't know what happens to them - they probably officially went to Tengen's creditors if Tengen went bankrupt, but I have no idea how to find out who would've actually gotten them. It would be great to actually be able to not only create new versions of RBI, but actually advertise them and be able to use the logo and graphics for shirts, posters, etc.
I think copyright law needs to account for situations like this. My thought is to add a stipulation that if a corporation is dissolved, any copyrights not explicitly claimed would go into the public domain.
wasn't the last rbi on genesis or super nintendo (chalmers)? i believe they used similar graphics for for the "R.B.I." big red trade mark. so whichever company put out rbi 95 probably still owns any copyrighted stuff. i would assume the actual player graphics were not protected, such as the "attract screen" guys like gantry's aviator.
The graphics would be copyrighted, not trademarked, and copyrights are good for something like 125 years now if a corporation owns them, plus they don't have to be actively defended to stay in force.