Introducing the License Manager and Catalog for Popular IPs and Creative Works

Updates Announcements
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Hi Creators!

Today, we’re excited to announce the License Manager and Licenses catalog, a new way to partner with popular intellectual properties (IP) on Roblox across gaming, entertainment, retail, and more. Our vision is to empower all creators to easily use the franchises and creative works they love in their experiences through licenses from IP holders. We’ll be launching the License Manager and catalog in early Q3, and we can’t wait for you to try it out.

In the Licenses catalog, you’ll be able to request a license from owners of participating popular IPs for your experience. These licenses enable you to create full experiences based on the IP under the terms and revenue share outlined.

This launch will give IP owners a way to proactively offer a license for experiences they discover are using their IP. Creators will also have the opportunity to dispute use of IP in their experience, if they believe that their experience doesn’t contain that specific IP. As a refresher on Intellectual Property on Roblox, we recommend reviewing our previous DevForum post on IP and copyright work on Roblox.

Unlock new creative avenues and expand your reach using popular IP

Creating experiences using popular IP can make your content more recognizable and exciting to users! It’s a great opportunity to reach new audiences that already know and love certain characters, settings, storylines, and more. Once launched, all creators will be able to browse and apply for a license in the Licenses catalog for the IPs that they’re most interested in.

What does it mean for IP owners to offer a license for their IP on Roblox?

Licenses are a set of terms and conditions that determine how an IP can be used by creators to build experiences on Roblox. IP owners set a revenue share rate and experience eligibility requirements. Eligibility requirements may include the maximum allowed content maturity rating, minimum number of active players, and more. A license also has standard terms and specific content standards to follow and ensure the IP is being used properly.

When registering their IP to create a license, the owner needs to identify their trademarks and meet other documentation requirements. We’re also updating the Roblox Terms of Use on June 6th to include language on partnering with an IP owner under the terms of a license. We’ll share more here at launch.

Looking ahead

Soon we will reveal the first batch of IP partners when we launch the Licenses catalog. We also plan to eventually allow all IP holders to offer a license, including creators with the right documentation, which we expect will bring more variety. Down the road, we’ll enable new ways to partner with IPs on Roblox beyond Full Experience Licenses.

We’re excited about the potential this new feature holds for everyone within the creator community. Stay tuned for more updates as we get closer to launch!

FAQs

What do I do if I’m using a popular IP today that isn’t under a license from the Licenses catalog?

  • You must have explicit permission from the IP owner if you want to use their IP in your experience. We recommend removing any content that might use IP and isn’t covered by a license. There may be some creators and experiences that have reached agreements with IP owners on their own – if you already have a licensing agreement with the IP owner, those will still be valid. The Licenses catalog is meant to open up new opportunities for you to find and easily partner with IP you might be interested in.

Is this just for “big game studios”, or can I apply for a license with a game I want to build that doesn’t currently meet the eligibility requirements?

  • This is for all creators! When applying for a license, the experience you pick is meant to showcase your abilities as a creator and could be partially or fully completed, or a fork of an existing game. Using the tools, the IP holder can review your application to build the experience around their IP and grant that experience a license.

Who qualifies as an IP Holder? Can I create a license for my IP?

  • At launch we’ll be providing a method for IP holders to express interest. If you have the necessary legal documentation (including registered marks), you can register your IP and offer a license

How will I know if I’m following the rules of using the IP for my experience?

  • Every license will come with terms and content standards for the IP. IP owners tend to have rules on what you can and cannot do with the IP. IP holders will be able to send you notifications if they think you need to make a change to your experience. It’s important to read the details of each license, so you can understand its requirements.

Will I be forced to use a template or approved assets in order to use the IP?

  • No. We believe in this community having maximum creative expression. So long as you’re following the terms and content standards of the license, you can make or use your own assets. That said, some IP owners may have more strict requirements on how their IP can or can’t be used, and it’s important to review the content standards stated in the license associated with the agreement.

Can I create one level or a portion of my game based on an IP and request a license?

  • You can only request or be offered a license for a full experience, this is best when the IP is central to your experience and woven throughout, justifying a license that comes with a royalty rate. In the future, we will explore other license types beyond full experience licenses.
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This topic was automatically opened after 10 minutes.

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To my understanding this should allow users to upload Copyrighted material as long as they purchase licensing rights, is that right?

For example, purchasing licensing rights from Sega to upload Sonic merchandise?

What if Sega (or the company that I bought licensing from) will accidentally DMCA my work? It’s quite hard to reach back to them to remove it, so will Roblox do proper investigation to make sure the user had Licensing before uploading the IP on the catalog?

Will Roblox provide some sort of proper contact details we could use to reach to the IP holders?
Or provide us with a channel between us and the company/IP holder so we can solve the issues in case they happen?

This sounds like a great update, but I could see false DMCAs being an issue, sent by companies that sold licensing to users, and then DMCA-ing those users by accident, because most of these companies use bots to scan and report these items.

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This and or, Just another layer of IP DMCA abuse from smaller creators as well. This sorta brings me worry regarding people Copyrighting IP’s of Pre-existing Roblox games and merchandise from their characters.

Will there be any repercussions from this ever happening? Such as extensive documentation that the approval process won’t get automated by AI to allow malicious actors from verifying?

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Would help if there was a feature to actually clear up any copies first before allowing this ?

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sounds like a neat feature

why though?

i feel like this is a really strange concept that both counteracts DMCA and supports it- im not seeing any pro and or con to even using this feature. It makes sense for pre-existing companies and IP holders already on roblox- but I dont see this being actually used what its for and more just to create a legal boundary that I dont think anyone really asked for. I see more abuse in this than anything going as follows-

“Hi, were [IP HOLDER]!, we can give you licenses to use this in Roblox. Were not giving out licenses.”

Roblox already has so many different inconsistent moderation practices regarding EU and complying with several other different countries’ legal battles that ultimately just do nothing to support or help developers. This just feels off and strange for a developer to handle, especially for younger and new creators who want to start building on the platform. Companies have already handled IP work with developers off the platform- what is the benefit of doing it on-platform? its like a weird middleman

This feature further demonstrates Roblox’s legal standards towards being liability-based and under the authority of bigger companies who have to go out of their way to do a job that Roblox needs to get a better grip on.

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Well I guess anime games are cooked

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Question @xBigBroGregx if we were to get a license to make an experience via license for a brand, would this also count towards the eligibility requirements for the Brand Developer Directory and Roblox Partner Program for working with a brand by making them a experience? Or would that only count with a direct partnership with the brand?

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If someone releases copyright free music, can someone with money steal that music, then turn it into IP and then remove the original release and claim it as having it created by themselves?

That concept is scary. Does it apply to this?

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@xBigBroGregx could you respond generally to concerns about this being abused by big and small creators alike?

While people need to provide documents for ownership, I question the process for confirmation and edge cases. I think a statement assuring creator safety, more on the wrongful IP claims side, would go a long way.

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I suppose the burning question is will a game like AUT be severely cooked from this?

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Very ironic quote considering yall forced us to use conceptually unfinished systems like the topbar, the new studio and TextChatService

Anyway, I’m worried that this new IP system will cause a flood of officially licensed games that aren’t of high quality, alongside other problems (such as people misusing the system to terminate games at will)
Could this feature be a way for roblox to damage control copyright infringement so they can’t get sued for that?

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didn’t implementing this break the ability to use strong language in 17+ games that explicitly have it enabled? lol

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Honestly, I believe this will make it way easier to partner with brands off/on Roblox.

And if I’m not mistaken, this might be able to allow creators license the Oof Sound :thinking:
The only reason I bring that up is, I’m pretty sure Roblox said awhile ago that they’re making ways to allow people to license content in the future.

Anywho, this is cool to see!

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On the surface, this feature looks really good and sounds great. It opens up a lot of opportunities. I resonate with the concerns raised by other people in this thread because if handled improperly, this creates a lot more problems than it solves. Here are a few questions that I have regarding this new feature:

  1. How will Roblox verify the legitimacy of IP ownership and maintain exclusivity in the catalog? Many systems (e.g., Amazon’s) were undermined by bogus claims sent to the US Patent & Trademark Office. What safeguards and validation processes are in place to prevent this?
  2. How will disputes be resolved? You mention that IP owners can “message” creators. What does that process look like in practice? Will Roblox actively mediate disputes, or will it resemble YouTube’s flawed system, where content is automatically flagged with little recourse? If AI is used, how will Roblox ensure its accuracy?
  3. If Roblox won’t mediate disputes, will this limitation be explicitly stated in the license agreement to avoid false assumptions of protection?
  4. Will legal identification be required from creators? Most licensing agreements require full legal info from the licensee. Will this be the case here? And if so, what protections are in place to ensure this sensitive data is secure?
  5. What’s the plan for data protection? Creators and users are already frequent targets for doxxing and harassment. Requiring and storing legal data could increase risk—not just for creators, but for Roblox itself. What concrete measures are being taken to secure this data?
  6. What happens if an IP holder is removed or loses sublicensing rights? If a license becomes invalid—due to account termination or legal changes—what happens to the creator’s experience? Is it taken down immediately, put into a hold state, or grandfathered in under some policy?
  7. Will each IP owner set their own wildly different terms, or will Roblox enforce a baseline structure (e.g., revenue share caps, duration, usage limits)? This affects predictability and fairness.
  8. Will creators be able to negotiate terms, or is it take-it-or-leave-it? This could matter to larger developers or studios that want different rev shares or creative flexibility.
  9. Will licenses be global or region-locked? Some IPs may only be licensed for specific regions. Will Roblox geo-block those experiences, or put that burden on the creator?
  10. How will creators be notified of licensing changes? If the IP terms change, will Roblox provide automated alerts, emails, dashboard warnings, etc.?

All of my questions seem like doomsday scenarios but I’m trying to tick off the boxes so other creators, who may not be as well versed in the legal world, can rest assured that they will not be liable due to Roblox’s oversights with this feature.

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So to my understanding this appears to be a collective bargaining scheme where Roblox bargains with IP holders on behalf of all Roblox Creators. If so, I really like this approach because these IP agreements are difficult to achieve individually. I think there is a lot more leverage when negotiating for the usage rights of the entire platform, rather than the use rights of a single game.

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Just reading this made me realise how inexperienced I’m with copyrights and law stuff in general … I shouldn’t say that out loud, should I? :sweat_smile:

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I am must ask License to place Bloxy cola in my Game?

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I know this post refers to “IPs” but does this cover things like automotive brands such as Nissan or Toyota? This would be especially helpful for driving games that have needed to resort to fake models. Having licenses available for these means that there won’t be a need for fakes, though I am aware of what happened with Driving Empire where their lootbox system caused brands like Lamborghini and Ferrari to request their cars to be removed from games which might lower the chances of this happening. Driving Empire has licenses for many, many brands now so is this a possibility if these brands have already given licenses to games on the platform, and with brands such as Lamborghini and Mclaren having official games / events?

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Games like Greenville are already licensing. Greenville has gained access to use Renault branding as well as Land Rover/Range Rover branding. (though I’m sure there are very specific limitations to this access)

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