“Atomic Heart” is a shooter video game that was released on February 21, 2023. It was developed by the Russian “Mundfish” studio, which was founded in 2017 by advertising industry members Artem Galeyev, Robert Bagratuni, Evgenia Sedova and Oleg Gorodishenin.
“Atomic Heart” is set in an alternative Soviet Union in 1955. The Soviet Union aesthetic is recognizable in the futuristic game world through the use of many attributes of the past – the characteristic "Chaika" and "Moskvich” cars, the rabbit and wolf from the animation series "Nu, pogodi!", the monument "Rabochy i Kolkhoznitsa", "Stalin's Tall Towers", posters, magazines, references to famous films and books of the late USSR and others.
“Atomic Heart” also includes the use of re-edits of popular Soviet music, songs such as “Grass by the House” (“Trava u doma”) by Zemlyane, “Komarovo” by Igor Sklyar and others. The video game uses more than 100 songs that are protected by copyright law.
"In order to be able to legally use them [songs], the developers turned to the IPEX media content platform. It is thanks to their cooperation with the platform, popular Soviet musical hits appeared in the video game", Valeria Brusnikina, Portfolio Manager of IT-projects of the IPChain Association, noted.
The expert also discussed what basic elements of game-design, in addition to music, should be protected by copyright law and advised on digital services that can help in the intellectual property field.
"For a developer, code protection is important. A handy digital tool for this is a service called SAVECODE, which allows you to digitally deposit the code and thereby ensure the priority of authorship.
The service takes into account specific developer needs and allows authorship for source code, software interface and design to be retained via a code editor (integration with JetBrains products) or a graphical editor (Figma). The encrypted source code is uploaded into a secure virtual cell, and information about it is recorded in a distributed registry of the RCIS.
Brusnikina also stressed the importance of game character copyright protection:
"According to Russian law, video game characters may be protected as items of copyright or trademarks. To use them, you need the permission of the rightsholder. [Digital services like] n'RIS and "Online Patent" will help [creators] register their rights instantly.”
These services are designed to protect and defend the rights of authors, rightsholders, and users, and makes the process of protecting intellectual property rights a matter of minutes due to easy online registration.
Get creative and use IPChain's online intellectual property trust infrastructure services to record, manage and protect your IP rights!
