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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

Roller Coaster Litigation Ends

Posted on February 05, 2008
In 2005 we reported that Roller Coaster Tycoon developer Chris Sawyer had sued Atari for US$5 million in respect of royalties he claimed Atari owed him. Sawyer also claimed that Atari breached a licensing agreement with him by failing to give him access to Atari's accounts between 1999 and 2001...

Sony Abuzz about Trade-mark Suit

Posted on February 05, 2008
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is facing claims of trade-mark infringement from Buzztime Entertainment, a California-based maker of interactive electronic trivia games that are often found in bars and restaurants. According to the suit filed last week in the Southern District of California, SCEE's 'Buzz!' line of quiz games for the PlayStation 2 and its tagline 'It's time to get buzzing" violate several of Buzztime's registered trade-marks...

Silicon Knights Digs for Epic Contract Information

Posted on February 05, 2008
Silicon Knights and Epic Games have been embroiled in a lawsuit over the Unreal Engine 3 for some time now. According to recent reports, Silicon Knights has filed subpoenas on several Unreal Engine 3 licensees in order to see the terms of their confidential licensing contracts with Epic...

Manhunt 2 Still Banned in UK

Posted on February 05, 2008
Despite a successful appeal to the British Video Appeals Committee (see our previous coverage), it appears Rockstar Games is still not able to release the controversial Manhunt 2 in the UK. On January 24, 2008 the High Court ruled overturned the VAC's ruling, telling the committee that it must reconsider its decision because it had committed a "clear error of law" in its approach to the question of harm...

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World of Warcraft Lawsuit Moving Forward

Posted on February 05, 2008
The class-action lawsuit against IGE is moving ahead, slowly but surely. That lawsuit, filed on behalf of all World of Warcraft players, alleges that IGE (by gold farming, spamming, etc.) has prevented players from receiving the full benefits they are entitled to as third-party beneficiaries of Blizzard's Terms of USE and End User License Agreement...

Perpetual Entertainment sued by PR Firm over Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising

Posted on February 05, 2008
After announcing that its MMO, Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising, would be put on hold so that it could focus on Star Trek Online, Perpetual Entertainment was sued by its former PR firm, Kohnke Communications. Kohnke claims that Perpetual owes it monies for outstanding invoices, as well as for bonuses Kohnke would have made, depending on the success of Gods and Heroes...

'Hot Coffee' Compensation Announced

Posted on February 05, 2008
Take-Two Interactive ahas nnounced details of its compensation plan for gamers who purchased copies of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas before July 20, 2005 - the version which contains the sexually-explicit 'Hot Coffee' mod. The discovery of the hidden data by modders led to a firestorm of criticism for Take-Two and Rockstar Games, and culminated in a class action in the US...

Stranglehold Ad Banned in UK

Posted on February 05, 2008
The UK Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that a TV ad for Midway's "Stranglehold" cannot be shown on British television because the ad encourages and promotes violence. The decision was prompted by two consumer complaints. The ad had been carefully prepared so that it did not depict bullets hitting anyone (since the game is associated with John Woo and his "bullet ballet" style of action, there's no question that it features plenty of bullets), and had been pre-cleared by the British NGO which approves ads (the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre)...

Leave No Child Inside

Posted on February 01, 2008
New Mexico's 1% excise tax bill HB583 is presently under review by the House Business & Industry Committee. It is reported that, if passed, it will become law on January 1, 2009 and would result in taxes being paid on purchases of video games, consoles and televisions...

'Hot Coffee' Compensation Announced

Posted on January 30, 2008
Take-Two Interactive ahas nnounced details of its compensation plan for gamers who purchased copies of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas before July 20, 2005 - the version which contains the sexually-explicit 'Hot Coffee' mod. The discovery of the hidden data by modders led to a firestorm of criticism for Take-Two and Rockstar Games, and culminated in a class action in the US...

Manhunt 2 Still Banned in UK

Posted on January 30, 2008
Despite a successful appeal to the British Video Appeals Committee (see our previous coverage), it appears Rockstar Games is still not able to release the controversial Manhunt 2 in the UK. On January 24, 2008 the High Court ruled overturned the VAC's ruling, telling the committee that it must reconsider its decision because it had committed a "clear error of law" in its approach to the question of harm...

Sony Abuzz about Trade-mark Suit

Posted on January 30, 2008
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is facing claims of trade-mark infringement from Buzztime Entertainment, a California-based maker of interactive electronic trivia games that are often found in bars and restaurants. According to the suit filed last week in the Southern District of California, SCEE's 'Buzz!' line of quiz games for the PlayStation 2 and its tagline 'It's time to get buzzing" violate several of Buzztime's registered trade-marks...

The 'Terminator' Continues the Battle Against Violent Content

Posted on January 30, 2008
The State of California is the site of an ongoing battleground between free speech advocates and legislators seeking to limit access to violent video games. A law passed by the State Legislature in 2005 that would imposed fines and other sanctions on persons who sold certain video games to minors, was struck down by the a U...

Perpetual Entertainment sued by PR Firm over Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising

Posted on January 29, 2008
After announcing that its MMO, Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising, would be put on hold so that it could focus on Star Trek Online, Perpetual Entertainment was sued by its former PR firm, Kohnke Communications. Kohnke claims that Perpetual owes it monies for outstanding invoices, as well as for bonuses Kohnke would have made, depending on the success of Gods and Heroes...

World of Warcraft Lawsuit Moving Forward

Posted on January 29, 2008
The class-action lawsuit against IGE is moving ahead, slowly but surely. That lawsuit, filed on behalf of all World of Warcraft players, alleges that IGE (by gold farming, spamming, etc.) has prevented players from receiving the full benefits they are entitled to as third-party beneficiaries of Blizzard's Terms of USE and End User License Agreement...

Stranglehold Ad Banned in UK

Posted on January 28, 2008
The UK Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that a TV ad for Midway's "Stranglehold" cannot be shown on British television because the ad encourages and promotes violence. The decision was prompted by two consumer complaints. The ad had been carefully prepared so that it did not depict bullets hitting anyone (since the game is associated with John Woo and his "bullet ballet" style of action, there's no question that it features plenty of bullets), and had been pre-cleared by the British NGO which approves ads (the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre)...

Silicon Knights Digs for Epic Contract Information

Posted on January 28, 2008
Silicon Knights and Epic Games have been embroiled in a lawsuit over the Unreal Engine 3 for some time now. According to recent reports, Silicon Knights has filed subpoenas on several Unreal Engine 3 licensees in order to see the terms of their confidential licensing contracts with Epic...

Tariff 22A Decision and video game music

Posted on January 23, 2008
This is a case summary of RE: SOCAN Statement of Royalties, Internet-Online Music Services, 1996-2006 (Tariff 22.A), (2007) 61 CPR (4th) 353. The Society of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN), the collective society mandated to collect royalties for musical works in Canada, proposed a tariff to the Copyright Board of Canada (the Board) targeting musical works communicated by means of Internet transmission...

Ginko Financial Could Be In Hot Water Again

Posted on January 22, 2008
Following its demise this summer, 'self-styled' virtual bank Ginko Financial was thought to have disappeared into the ether - literally. It appears to have indirectly reared its less than popular head - on eBay no less. According to Ginko's own site, it is selling a '1U Rackmount Xeon 5160 Server' on eBay to the tune of $3200USD...

China to Restrict On-Line Games?

Posted on January 18, 2008
Reported statistics about on-line gaming in China are pretty staggering: there are about 40.2 million on-line gamers, and 2007 on-line game sales exceeded $1.46 billion. The flip side is growing concern about on-line addiction, and the growing trend of blaming much of juvenile crime on on-line gaming obsessions...

XBOX Live Lawsuit Update

Posted on January 17, 2008
We commented last week on the Texas lawsuit against Microsoft which was prompted by the problems XBOX Live experienced over the holiday season (see our previous post). The plaintiffs' lawyer has since spoken about their side of the story, assuring everyone that it is not a money grab and that they are legitimately trying to make Microsoft accountable for collecting money for a service that doesn't work...

India Mulling Video Game Ban?

Posted on January 17, 2008
GamePolitics cites various sources which claim that the Indian government is contemplating legislation banning violent video games. It's not clear what form the ban might take (for example, will legislators look to the various pieces of legislation that have been put forward?)...

GameON Forum - Toronto

Posted on January 16, 2008
Attention all game business people in the Metro Toronto area: The GameON Finance Forum is taking place on January 17 and 18 in Toronto. we're proud to say that Sarah Dale-Harris, one of our very own video game lawyers, will be sitting on a dynamic panel on Friday afternoon to discuss the ever-vexing question of "Do Game Developers Need to Focus More on Tech IP Commercialization?"...

Stalking Charge Linked to On-Line Activities

Posted on January 16, 2008
A 20-year-old man was recently arrested an charged with stalking a 15-year-old-girl. This appears to be another situation where the initial contact between the parties was on-line (in this case apparently through X-Box Live). After making initial contact, the man allegedly then commenced a series of acts of harassment...

Nintendo and Sony Sued for Violating Controller Patents

Posted on January 16, 2008
Nintendo and Sony have been the latest video game manufacturers to be accused of infringing patents in producing video game controllers. Copper Innovations Group has commenced lawsuits in Pennsylvania alleging that Nintendo and Sony infringed a patent Copper filed in January 1996...

WILL YOU BE OUR FRIEND?

Posted on January 16, 2008
Hasbro, the owner of the board game SCRABBLE, has sued Facebook for copyright infringement, claiming that the Scrabulous game on Facebook violates Hasbro's copyright in SCRABBLE. Hasbro is keen to protect its IP in the electronic frontier, especially since Hasbro signed an agreement last year with EA to create electronic versions of its board games including Scrabble...

Second Life Patent and Trade-Mark Office: It was only a matter of time really...

Posted on January 15, 2008
Two brave entrepreneurs have finally ventured into the frontier of virtual intellectual property protection and have opened a 'Second Life Patent and Trademark Office' at www.slpto.com. It was only a matter of time really, so what are the real world implications? In some ways, it is anyone's guess; however, I can't resist being an armchair critic and throw out a few initial thoughts...

Caveat Emptor - Or Not... Linden Labs To Shut Down "Banks" In Second Life

Posted on January 11, 2008
In the wake of the collapse of 'Ginko Financial' in August 2007 and a significant number of Resident complaints that in-world 'banks' are defaulting on their promises, Linden Labs has decided to break with its tradition of not interfering with 'in-world' activities by prohibiting in-world companies from offering interest or any direct return on investments in Second Life...

EA Completes Acquisition of VG Holding Group

Posted on January 08, 2008
In an effort to expand its portfolio and in the hopes of securing a leading competitive position in the RPC, action and adventure genres, Electronic Arts has completed its acquisition of VG Holding Group, bringing BioWare and Pandemic Studios under the EA Games umbrella...

Why do politicians keep proposing anti-violence video game legislation?

Posted on January 07, 2008
It's a good question, especially in the US where the legislation is regularly struck down as being unconstitutional. Maybe the answer, in part, is that some people don't know where to draw the line. For example'-- How about a game where you can shoot down planes before they crash into New York landmarks? The game called 'New York Defender II' has outraged many Americans, as you'll see from these reports on Fox and First Coast News...

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