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Intellectual Property Law

Video Game Law Blog

Current issues in video game law.
By Chris Bennett, Tudor Carsten, Michael R. Coburn, Sarah Dale-Harris, Pablo Guzman, Danielle (Dani) Lemon, Chris Metcalfe and David Spratley

Post Frequency: 1.5/day

Last Entry: May 07, 2010 at 21:07:00

Jim Brown takes on EA and Sony

Posted on August 12, 2008
Former Cleveland Browns player Jim Brown is suing Electronics Arts and Sony for using his image in EA's Madden NFL series without his authorization. Brown takes the position that video games had not yet been invented when he was playing football in the NFL, and he therefore never had the chance to make the decision to sign away the rights to his image to be used in video games...

GTA San Andreas Class Action Decertified

Posted on August 09, 2008
Though Take Two had been nearing settlement with the plaintiffs in a class action who claimed to have been offended by hidden, sexual content in Take Two's GTA San Andreas Game - a.k.a. the Hot Coffee modification - those negotiations have now been derailed with the decertification of the plaintiffs' class action...

Scrabulous removed, but returns under a new name

Posted on August 01, 2008
Facebook users in Canada and the US were blocked from using the extremely popular Scrabulous application earlier this week. Facebook blocked the application pursuant to Hasbro's request, as the company has taken the matter to Court with claims that RJ Softwares and the Agarwalla brothers' game infringes on their Scrabble intellectual property rights...

Merger Complete

Posted on July 29, 2008
Activision and Vivendi Games have officially merged as Activision Blizzard, making Vivendi Games a wholly-owned subsidiary of Activision. The merger is viewed as a new chapter in interactive entertainment, giving Activision Blizzard leading market positions in all categories of the interactive software industry...

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Nintendo Controllers Banned After Bid for New Trial Rejected

Posted on July 25, 2008
U.S. District Judge Ron Clark has rejected Nintendo Co's bid for a new trial and forced the company to either post a bond or put royalties in escrow to avoid a ban in the US on some of its controllers. The bid was made by Nintendo in an effort to overturn a May 2008 decision wherein it was held that some of Nintendo's Wii and GameCube Controllers infringed on patents owned by Anascape Ltd...

A Simply Scrabulous Lawsuit

Posted on July 25, 2008
A lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District Court in New York by Hasbro Inc. against the creators of 'Scrabulous'. Although an official version of Scrabble was issued last week by Electronic Arts Inc. for Canadian and American Facebook users, online players have continued to play Scrabulous...

Canadians Doing Their Share to Boost Game Industry

Posted on July 18, 2008
Video game hardware and software sales for the first half of 2008 are up 56 percent in Canada and 53 percent in the US compared to last year. First-half sales were $783 million in Canada and $8.3 billion in the US. These figures (which were provided by NPD Canada) reinforce what many of us have known for a while: the video game industry is huge, and is as significant as any other form of "traditional" entertainment...

Konami sues Viacom over ROCK BAND

Posted on July 18, 2008
According to a Bloomberg report, Konami filed suit in Marshall, Texas, Federal Court on July 9, 2008 against Harmonix Music Systems, its parent company Viacom and Viacom's MTV Networks Co. Konami Corp., the Japanese creator best known for it development of the 'Dance Dance Revolution', 'Karaoke Revolution' and 'Metal Gear Solid' video games, is claiming that Harmonix Studio's 'Rock Band' video game infringes on a number of US patents which it registered in 2002 and 2003...

Bot makers: beware!

Posted on July 17, 2008
In March we reported that Vivendi had sued the author of a software tool that automates certain in-game tasks such as fighting in World of Warcraft. Vivendi claimed that the software tool infringed its copyrights because the tool copies game code into RAM in order to avoid cheat-prevention software, and also violates the game's end-user licence agreement...

NY Passes Video Game Display Bill

Posted on July 16, 2008
The New York State Assembly has passed a bill mandating that all videogames sold in the state of New York display ESRB ratings on their packaging. The bill also requires new consoles to be equipped with controls that would prevent the display of indecent/violent video games...

Is this the End of Jack Thompson?

Posted on July 15, 2008
Jack Thompson, lawyer and anti-video game advocate, is facing permanent disbarment. Judge Tunis, the Referee overseeing Mr. Thompson's disciplinary hearing rejected the recommendation of the Florida Bar Association for a 10-year disbarment for Mr. Thompson...

Court Upholds $21M Patent Infringement Verdict Against Nintendo

Posted on July 15, 2008
The verdict in favour of Anascape Ltd., originally handeded down on May 14, 2008, was upheld by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texax, Lufkin Division, when it denied Nintendo's motion for a reduced verdict. At issue were a series of patents owned by Anascape relating to video game controllers...

Two Gamers File Class Action Lawsuit Against Electronic Arts

Posted on July 15, 2008
The claim alleges that Electronic Arts' exclusive rights agreement with the NFL, NCAA football and the Arena Football League, which grants EA the sole right to publish games featuring the thoe leagues' teams, players and stadiums, amounts to "blatantly anticompetitive conduct"...

Activision Vivendi Merger to Proceed

Posted on July 14, 2008
A Delaware judge denied the preliminary injunction to halt the merger between Activision and Vivendi S.A. that was requested by the Wayne County Employees' Retirement System. The announcement of the $18.9 billion transaction was made last December. Following an approbatory vote of the two companies' shareholders, the merger will be ready to proceed...

File Share Beware - IP ID'd

Posted on July 11, 2008
Submitted by Amanda Alfieri, Articled Student Topware Interactive obtained judgments from a London Court against four individuals for file-sharing . The Court granted interim damages in the amount of �750 per person and the final amount can be up to �2000 per person...

Tecmo's legal woes

Posted on July 11, 2008
Submitted by Tania Da Silva, Articled Student On June 17, 2008, it was reported that two of Tecmo's employees, Team Ninja developers Hiroaki Ozawa and Tatsuki Tsunoda, were filing a class action lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court, on behalf of themselves and 300 other employees, against the company for 8...

Nintendo and Nyko in Nunchuk Fight

Posted on July 03, 2008
Nintendo has sued Nyko Technologies Inc. over its Wii accessory, the wireless Kama Nunchuk. In a suit filed in US District Court in Seattle, Nintendo alleges that Nyko's remote "wholly appropriates the novel shape, design, overall appearance and even the color and materials used in the Nintendo Nunchuk controller...

Music Suit Against Nintendo Suddenly Dropped

Posted on July 03, 2008
GameSpot is reporting that a suit against Nintendo for using unauthorized music in its 2004 commercial for 'Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door' has been dropped. Morgan Creek Productions filed the suit on June 12, 2008 alleging that Nintendo had used the song 'You're So Cool' without permission...

Hot Coffee Just a Tempest in a Teapot?

Posted on July 03, 2008
Who can forget the infamous Hot Coffee episode from a few years ago, when players found hidden (and adult-oriented) content in Take Two's "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas"? Well, except perhaps for video game lawyers, it seems like many people have forgotten...

GTA Movie Situation

Posted on July 03, 2008
There have been a number of movies in recent years based on video game properties (e.g, Hitman, Doom, etc.) Even though Take Two's Grand Theft Auto series of games is wildly popular, however, it's unlikely that there will be a "Grand Theft Auto" movie based on the game...

Minnesota pays ESA $65,000

Posted on July 03, 2008
The Entertainment Software Association recently received $65,000 in fees and expenses from the state of Minnesota, after the state tried and failed to draft enforceable anti-violence video game legislation. The ESA challenged the law in court and won...

Godfather goes to court

Posted on June 20, 2008
Paramount Pictures and Electronic Arts released the Godfather game back in 2006. The estate of Mario Puzo (the author of the original books) has now sued for royalties from the video game. Anthony Puzo, Mario's son, has initiated the lawsuit, which seeks at least $1 million in damages...

EA sued re Madden 2006

Posted on June 19, 2008
In an earlier posting, we reported that the video game industry has seen some huge exclusive agreements, such as EA's exclusive video game rights to the NFL, NCAA football, and ESPN. We noted that there are concerns that exclusive licences like this might diminish the quality of games by reducing the number of competing games (for example, buyers are more likely to buy a football game using real NFL players and teams than one that does not), and that there might be anti-competition concerns with such licences...

XBOX doesn't violate Alcatel-Lucent Patent

Posted on June 09, 2008
Microsoft is no doubt breathing a sigh of relief after a jury ruled that the XBOX 360 didn't violate an Alcatel-Lucent patent for coding video frames. On the other hand, the jury also ruled that Alcatel-Lucent didn't violate a number of Microsoft patents...

Germany becoming even stricter on Violence in Games

Posted on May 20, 2008
Submitted by Dr. Andreas Lober / Carine Neumller, LL.M. Germany has been known for strict legislation regarding violence in games for a long time, but recent changes will make live even harder for games companies. According to the latest changes, media which predominantly contains exceptionally realistic, gruel and lurid images of violence as an end in itself is now indexed, i...

Take Two sues the Chicago Transit Authority

Posted on May 14, 2008
Take Two has sued the Chicago Transit Authority after the CTA removed ads for Grand Theft Auto IV. The CTA's actions appear to have been a response to a Fox News reporter's on-air question about why the CTA was carrying the ads. Coverage here (NBC)...

Take-Two: The Hits Just Keep on Coming

Posted on May 02, 2008
Despite the fact that sales of their flagship franchise are smashing records this week, Take-Two is still embroiled in all kinds of legal troubles. It was recently revealed that another shareholder has filed a class action suit against the Take-Two board for their handling of the EA takeover bid...

"K�lner Dom" in Second Life: Copyright Infringement?

Posted on April 29, 2008
To the inhabitants of Cologne, their "Dom" is very dear and legend says that tourists calling the building "Cathedral" have found themselves thrown into the Rhine. So the judges of the District Court of Cologne will have been very pleased that they have not just rendered what is probably the first German judgement on copyright of Second Life architecture, but that this case refers to the great Cologne landmark...

Minnesota Video Game Law Not Dead

Posted on April 28, 2008
If Minnesota's video game legislation were a Monty Python character, right about now it would be saying "I'm getting better ... I think I'll go for a walk." Which is another way of saying that the legislation, while down, is not dead yet. Back in March, a 3-judge panel of a US Federal Court of Appeal upheld a permanent injunction against the legislation (see our previous post)...

Activision Settles Guitar Hero Suit

Posted on April 28, 2008
Hard to find time to blog, what with the steady torrent of press releases and marketing hype on this GTA IV-eve. Apparently, an ever-growing list of concerned citizens would like to remind you that, unlike Trix, GTA IV is definitely not for kids. In other news, Guitar Hero publisher Activision has reportedly settled a class-action suit brought on behalf of frustrated purchasers of the Wii version of the game, who claimed that the sound was outputting in mono only...

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