Video Game Law Blog: Intellectual Property Law

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Intellectual Property Law Blogs

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

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

Tough times in the games industry

Posted on January 26, 2009
Utah video game developer Sensory Sweep probably won't win an ??oeemployer of the year' award this year, at least not if its former employees have any say in the matter. Nearly 200 of the former employees have sued the developer for more than $2 million in unpaid wages, claiming they've been owed the money for more than 100 days...

Sharp Feels Sharp Pain

Posted on December 23, 2008
Submitted by Karine Bellavance It has been reported by PC World that Japan's Fair Trade Commission (the FTC) has slapped Sharp with a fine of over $2.9 million pursuant to Japan's Antimonopoly Act, to be paid by March 19, 2009. An investigation into price-fixing of LCD modules that are used in the Nintendo DS resulted in this fine...

SCRABULOUSO!

Posted on December 18, 2008
Hasbro has apparently dropped its copyright infringement lawsuit against the makers of Scrabulous, RJ Softwares. No explanation for the discontinuance of the proceedings has been given.p p Personally, I think that Scrabulous was the best thing on Facebook!p p Coverage at: GameDaily...

SECOND Wii REMOTE STRAPS LAWSUIT

Posted on December 15, 2008
Shortly after the release of the Wii, Nintendo was sued over weak remote straps that were allegedly unsuitable for normal play because the straps caused the remote to fly out of the player's hand. Nintendo was aware of the issue and offered over 3.2 million replacement straps...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Midway Cleared Of Psi-Ops Copyright Infringement

Posted on December 09, 2008
Midway has been declared the winner in a copyright infringement action brought by William Crawford, a California screenwriter, over Midway's game "Psi-Ops: the Mindgate Conspiracy". Crawford claimed that the game borrowed heavily from his script for a movie called "Psi-Ops' and sought $25M in damages...

UPDATE: THQ v. Activision Settle Baja Dispute

Posted on December 09, 2008
It seems that THQ and Activision have settled their copyright fight over the box art for Activision's "SCORE International Baja 1000". Patent Arcade is reporting that THQ discontinued the lawsuit on November 18, 2008 after Activision agreed to change the cover of its game, which clearly shared some significant similarities with THQ's "Baja: Edge of Control"...

Decrease in Piracy for PSP Software

Posted on December 04, 2008
Submitted by Karine Bellavance Sony Computer Entertainment America's head of hardware marketing, John Koller, has said that although piracy remains a problem for the PlayStation Portable (PSP), it has trended down in recent months. Although it has been reported that sales for the PSP hardware have been doing reasonably well, it has not been the case for the PSP software...

Of Zombies, Malls and IP Law

Posted on December 01, 2008
Can you battle zombies in a mall (or depict such events, anyways) without worrying about infringing on the IP rights of MKR Group, the owners of the "Dawn of the Dead" licenses? Capcom, the company behind the Dead Rising video game, certainly thought so...

F.E.A.R. Not

Posted on November 28, 2008
The Classification Board of Australia has refused to classify F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin FPS, which will prevent it from being sold in Australia. The Board hasn't given an explanation for its refusal, but it likely stems from the fact that the highest rating currently available in Australia is MA15+, and the Board likely concluded that the MA15+ rating was not appropriate for the game...

CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT AGAINST ROCK BAND DRUM PEDALS

Posted on November 28, 2008
Harmonix, MTV, EA and Viacom, the creators of the game Rock Band, are the defendants in a class action lawsuit for having allegedly shipped defective drum pedals in a scheme to cheat consumers. According to plaintiff Monte Morgan from Kansas, the drum pedal has a design defect which causes the pedal to fracture under ordinary usage...

Virtual Infidelity Leads to Real Divorce

Posted on November 26, 2008
Amy Taylor, a 28-yeard old British woman, was shocked and distressed when she walked in on David Pollard, her husband of three years, having sex with another woman. This was not the first time she'd caught him in the act, but it was the final straw. Ms...

Chris Bennett Named a Rising Star by Lexpert

Posted on November 25, 2008
Davis LLP is pleased to announce that Chris Bennett, a partner in the Vancouver office, was selected as one of the Lexpert Rising Stars: Leading Lawyers Under 40 at a gala event in Toronto last night. "Chris Bennett is incredibly deserving of this honour," says Robert Seidel Q...

Patent Troubles for Sony

Posted on November 24, 2008
Submitted by Karine Bellavance Sony has been ordered to pay $18.5 million to Agere Systems following a successful patent infringement lawsuit filed in 2006. Agere Systems alleged that Sony violated its "wireless local area network apparatus" patent. Agere's patent covers the storing of headers in music files on a memory chip...

HUMANS BATTLING ZOMBIES UNPROTECTED

Posted on November 24, 2008
United States Magistrate Judge Richard Seeborg granted Capcom's Motion to Dismiss the lawsuit instituted by The MKR Group, which claimed that Capcom's mall-zombie-game Dead Rising infringed on its Dawn of the Dead IP rights. In dismissing the lawsuit Judge Seeborg reportedly found that "To the extent that Dead Rising may be deemed to posses a theme, it is confined to the killing of zombies in the process of attempting to unlock the cause of the zombie infestation...

GTA ads are back on Chicago Transit

Posted on November 20, 2008
In an earlier posting, we reported that Take Two 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...

RETIRED NFL PLAYERS AWARDED $28.1 MILLION

Posted on November 13, 2008
It was reported by the San Francisco Chronicle that a federal jury awarded $28.1 million dollars to over 2000 retired NFL players as the result of a lawsuit against the NFLPA. The players claimed that the NFLPA had not properly compensated them for videogames as well as other merchandise...

ARRIVA! ARRIVA!

Posted on November 11, 2008
Mexico's Procuraduria General de la Republica and Agencia Federal de Investigacion recently seized 20 tons of pirated materials including approximately 91,200 copies of video games, 130,000 video game cover inserts and 3,200 empty video game boxes in a Guadalajara Market...

ECA PARTNERSHIPS WITH WAL-MART, AMAZON AND K2 NETWORK

Posted on November 07, 2008
The Entertainment Consumers' Association (ECA) promotes gamers' rights and wishes to ensure that First Amendment rights are upheld for videogames as they are for other forms of entertainment. The ECA has formed a new retail partnership with Wal-Mart, Amazon and K2 Network in order to promote videogame advocacy...

PETA PRAISING PUBLISHER

Posted on November 06, 2008
Submitted by Karine Bellavance People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is praising publisher Sega for pulling adds it was running on its website to promote its Samba de Amigo game available on Wii. The adds featured a real chimpanzee shaking maracas and reacting to music...

DO VIDEO GAMES MAKE YOU VIOLENT?

Posted on November 04, 2008
Reports came out earlier this week of a study of Japanese and American kids testing whether exposure to violent video games led to more "violent dispositions" (coverage at: GameDaily.com). The study by Dr. Craig A. Anderson of Iowa State University suggested that children who were exposed to violent games tended to be more aggressive...

AUSTRALIA WITHOUT AN R18+ RATING FOR GAMES

Posted on November 03, 2008
Australia is the only developed country without an R18+ rating for games. The Australian public's opinion was polled about the introduction of an R18+ rating for games and a subsequent report was prepared, however, the South-Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson refused to make it public, consequently rendering it null...

THQ sues Activision Over Game Packaging

Posted on October 31, 2008
As first reported by Patent Arcade, THQ has filed suit against Activision Blizzard claiming trade dress and copyright infringement over the box art for Activision's brand new release, "SCORE International Baja 1000". THQ is seeking an injunction against the publisher, alleging that Activision's packaging is identical to that of its own racing game, "Baja Edge of Control", released in September...

REVIVING YEE'S VIDEO GAME LEGISLATION IN CALIFORNIA

Posted on October 28, 2008
This week, a federal appeals court will have to determine whether legislation drafted by Leland Yee for the state of California that had been struck down by the courts should be revived. The original law required that be marked with an '18' label and that their sale and/or rental be prohibited to minors...

ELECTRONIC ARTS SUED OVER "WIN WITH THE REBELS"

Posted on October 22, 2008
The Las-Vegas Review Journal has reported that Electronic Arts is being sued by Gerald Willis for as much as 1.5 million dollars for infringing Willis' copyright over the University of Las Vegas' fight song "Win With the Rebels". Willis is claiming $150,000...

LittleBigPlanet DELAYED OVER RELIGIOUS LYRICS

Posted on October 21, 2008
A Muslim gamer's flagging of a song that contains lyrics from verses of the Koran has resulted in a formal apology from Sony. It is reported that the complaint will result in the delay of the release of LittleBigPlanet to mid-November, in order to allow for the removal of the controversial material...

OBAMA IN BURNOUT

Posted on October 21, 2008
Barack Obama has brought his campaign online. It is reported that nine games, including Burnout, Madden, Nascar and NHL, feature Mr. Obama's in-game ads in the Xbox Live versions of the games. The ads are will continue to run until November 3. Mr. Obama is said to be the first presidential candidate to advertise in a video game...

THE PIRATES OF WAR

Posted on October 21, 2008
Submitted by Karine Bellavance Despite the fact that Gears of War 2 is not coming to PC, it is reported that a forged copy of the game has already been uploaded by various pirate sites for use on modified Xbox 360 systems. Epic Games' Lead Game Designer had stated that the game would not be coming to PC primarily due to piracy concerns...

FACENDA'S FAMILY SUES NFL FILMS

Posted on October 17, 2008
Submitted by Sylvie Lang A U.S. Appeals Court has ruled that the estate of legendary football announcer John Facenda can sue NFL Films for the misuse of his father's voice in a promotional video for an NFL video game. The Appeals Court unanimously held that the use of Facenda's voice, known to football fans as the 'Voice of God' violated Pennsylvania's 'right of publicity' laws...

PROLIFIC PIRATE PLEADS GUILTY

Posted on October 17, 2008
Submitted by Karine Bellavance Gary Boulter, who took part in a major piracy operation in Bristol, plead guilty to 23 offenses relating to the commercial piracy of illegally copied games, films, music and pornography. The Bristol Crown Court sentenced him to 15 months of prison, and he was also ordered to pay 12 000 pounds towards prosecution costs, in addition to a 10 500 pound fine...

NVIDIA SUED

Posted on October 17, 2008
Submitted by Karine Bellavance NVIDIA Corporation is being sued by a New York based law firm for alleged securities fraud. The firm alleges that between November 2007 and July 2008, NVIDIA accumulated important losses, as a result of withholding pertinent information about a high rate of failure for their mobile graphics solutions...

Previous | Next

Related Law Bulletins

Baltimore Police Officer Suspended Over YouTube Video Showing Him Manhandling Teenager
Baltimore Police Officer Salvatore Rivieri was suspended this week...

$200,000 Test Of Web Video Leads To Capture Of Only 10 Illegal Immigrants
According to the Dallas Morning News, a Web site that allows peopl...

A Killer’s Video Manifesto
Sometime after he killed two people in a Virginia university d...

New Baptist Covenant Blog
Last week, I pointed to the New Baptist Convenant website, now onl...

The Mexico Trucker Blog
I've written before about the perceived problems with relaxed rest...