Intellectual Property Law

Ninth Circuit: Trademark claim over use in video game stripped away by First Amendment

By McKee, Voorhees & Sease, P.L.C.

In a decision Wednesday, the Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court's grant of summary judgment that the producer of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas had a First Amendment defense against a claim of trademark infringement.  The plaintiff owns a strip club known as the "Play Pen" on the eastern edge of downtown Los Angeles.  Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas includes, in its fictional city "Los Santos," a virtual strip club "Pig Pen" in the neighborhood "East Los Santos."  The Ninth Circuit, agreeing with the district court, held the First Amendment defeated the infringement claim.  Specifically, the court held the game's producers' "modification of [the] trademark is not explicitly misleading and is thus protected by the First Amendment."

More detail of E.S.S. Entm't 2000, Inc. v. Rock Star Videos, Inc. after the jump.

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Full post as published by FileWrapper on November 07, 2008 (boomark / email).