Intellectual Property Law

Capcom sued by MKR over Dead Rising's "Thoughtful Social Commentary"

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

Despite Capcom's pre-emptive attempt to have a court declare that the popular 'Dead Rising' video game does not infringe any copyright or trademark, they were sued Monday by 'Dawn of the Dead' owners the MKR Group. This follows a drawn-out dispute over whether the MKR Group holds the rights to the 'zombies-in-a-mall' theme common to both works. According to Reuters, MKR's legal filing states: 'Both works are dark comedies. In both, the recreational activities of the zombies and absurdly grotesque 'kill scenes' provide unexpected comedic relief. Both works provided thoughtful social commentary on the 'mall culture' zeitgeist, in addition to serving up a sizable portion of sensationalistic violence."

In its earlier filings in support of its declaratory judgment action, Capcom has called the idea of humans battling zombies in a shopping mall 'wholly unprotectible'.

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Full post as published by Video Game Law Blog on February 27, 2008 (boomark / email).