Many playfields are exact copies of each other.

For instance Bally's Playboy and Arkon's Sexy Girl. So if Bally could not sue Arkon back in Pinball's heyday, I'd say the layouts must not be subject copyright.

The software is what makes the game.

Look how simple AFM is.

The most empty playfield ever made.

Also the most fun game ever made.

I'd say 1950 Bank a Ball is the most empty:
bankaball.jpg

That's the $100,000 question that would probably only be answered in court with a bunch of lawyers.

As Vid points out, in the past, there have been plenty of "copy" rip-off playfield designs in the past. But many of them were out of the US so it would probably be difficult to pursue legal action unless the games were imported for sale in the US. The Copyright protection would be for the artwork more so than the post placement. But even that was violated in some countries. Take for example, Taito copy of Black Knight (Cavaleiro Negro).

Here is Lady Luck. Does its art look a bit familiar?

http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=5010&picno=23734

Or this one:

http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=4569&picno=46478

I especially like this one. The layout of Centaur, with the Art of Flight 2000:

http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=4579&picno=43777

However, a more recently created product did include a license. A virtual Pinball redemption game Called SpongeBob Square Pants was based on the layout of Gottlieb's 70's King Pin EM layout. For whatever reason, the Manufacturers apparently negotiated a license from Gottlieb Development the holder of Gottlieb and Premier Copyrights.

good luck with that

except that's not at all what happened

Any works of media are copyrighted--music, voice, artwork, photos, code, etc.

Trademarks protect company/product names, logos, catch phrases, and other related artwork designs to some degree.

Unique mechanisms or methods of producing something can be patented. However, by this point, most of the pinball patents have run out and entered the public domain. Patents give the author exclusive rights of use for a period 20 years.

Objects that are built/manufactured for use generally can't be copyrighted, unless it's classified as an "artistic work", such as a mask or sculpture. If the object itself can't be copyrighted/patented, any artwork placed on it still can be copyrighted.

It hasn't ever been tested in court AFAIK but you almost certainly can't protect the layout of a game. The most similar thing I'm aware of is that you can't copyright the shape of a font, which seems much closer to an "artistic" creation than the placement of items on a pinball playfield. ForceFlow is correct that you might be able to get a design patent on it, but I don't think anyone has, and they would have expired for anything before Pin2k.

I'm partial to 50's sci-fi, but it's possible.

US Copyright laws have changed over the years, with works prior to 1978 being automatically in public domain IF they were not published with either the symbol (c) or Copyright AND the date and name of the copyright holder.

In other words if a work was published in the US without this registration it immediately entered public domain.

Works published between 1978 and Feb 28, 1989 were only copyrighted IF they either had the symbol (c) or the word Copyright AND the name when first published in the USA - OR - if the work was not copyrighted when first published in the USA, a copyright had to have been filed within 5 (five) years of publication. After that 5 year grace time the work entered automatically into public domain.

Works here are defined as artwork, or documents, and includes work for hire.

Search "public domain copyright USA" and do some reading. eg: http://www.teachingcopyright.org/handout/public-domain-faq. The US Copyright office has all copyright notices either on their web site or archived on archive.org - and most records are publicly accessible.

Since March 1, 1989 all works are copyrighted AUTOMATICALLY - whether or not they were filed in the US Copyright office.

Good info, but is sort of beside the point, which is the question of whether a playfield layout can even be copyrighted. It kinda seems like the answer is "probably not", but nobody posting so far seems to know for sure.

In terms of "why doesn't someone just copy an existing successful layout for a new pin" well, for one thing, I don't think that'd be very exciting for NiB buyers, and would probably carry a bit of a lameness stigma.

Yes it would.

I'd play an attack from alpha centuri. If the price under cut a new stern by several grand and had fun sounds and animations I'd even consider buying one. AFM is a great example for this because I don't think any there's any proprietary pieces (other than ramps) that couldn't be caught off the shelf. Change the look of the saucer and aliens enough to make it unique.

You can copyright graphics, however layout likely falls under Design Patent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_patent

Might be interesting to find if the manufacturers file for copyrights or Design Patents. DPs protect for 14 or 15 years, copyright is much longer.

http://www.uspto.gov/patents-getting-started/general-information-concerning-patents

Someone else will have to do that checking, I have enough to do! Perhaps the person who is interested should do the research...

Eye-ki-yie - (as Rickie Ricardo would say). It looks like Williams tried to patent everything mechanical about pinball back in the 80s and 90s!

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=0&f=S&l=50&TERM1=williams+electronics&FIELD1=&co1=AND&TERM2=pinball&FIELD2=&d=PTXT

Note that patents included Ball Troughs (what about 4 Million BC, Fireball, and other multi games?), convertible pinballs (like no kits existed prior to Pinball 2000?), Interactive Play (something blocks the ball? Drop targets that are in the way of a goal...), Sensor for jet bumpers (Atarians used sensors), and so on.

This is the real reason why pinball almost died out in the 90s, the lawyers got involved!

Bally wasn't any better:

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=0&f=S&l=50&d=PTXT&Query=%22bally+manufacturing%22+AND+pinball

However in neither case did I find a SPECIFIC game registered for a layout patent. So, while manufacturers patented various items (same that were around a while previously!), they didn't patent the actual game layout. So, now to search the Copyrights for specific game layouts - doubt they are there, if they are anywhere the layouts pretty much need to be in the patents.

Hello I would like to ask a question about re-creating a pinball machine with used ,new (like a playfield repro) and Nos parts that already exist is there a copyright there!!
Because if buying a pinball machine that is used over the years and then a pinball collector buy it,restore it, add new parts on it ,or not even add new parts ,but just accessories and he wants to make profit out of it just to make a few bucks on the side it really jacks up the price,but if you decide to go the route to recreate one with all the above I mentioned then the pinball machine will cost cheaper and it will be BRAND NEW!!
Any suggestions !
Thank you all .
Jimakos

See @JIMAKOST's thread here:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/copyright-and-pinball-what-can-you-copyright-1