Intellectual Property Law

Case Update: Worlds.com asserts second patent

Posted on April 21, 2009
Sorry for the delay on this, but on March 23, 2009, Worlds Inc. amended its complaint in the lawsuit against NCSoft to assert a second patent. The lawsuit now involves both of the following patents: Patent 7,181,690, Patent 7,493,558. The latter patent's claims do not appear as broad as the earlier patent's claims, which means that it will likely be more difficult to prove infringement, but also makes it generally more difficult to assert that the latter patent is invalid (because there are more elements in each claim that must be shown to be in the prior art)...

CASE SETTLED: Activision v. Gibson [P]

Posted on April 20, 2009
Not surprising in view of the court's claim construction that heavily favored Activision, it appears that Gibson and Activision have settled this case. Judge Pfaelzer of the District Court for the Central District of California, on April 17, 2009, entered an ORDER RE DISMISSAL...

News: Pirate Bay Operators Found Guilty

Posted on April 17, 2009
On a related note...If you haven't already heard, the four men connected to The Pirate Bay, the world's most notorious file sharing site, were convicted by a Swedish court Friday of contributory copyright infringement, and each sentenced to a year in prison...

New Case: Gametech v. Grand Vision Gaming (D. MT) [C]

Posted on April 16, 2009
GAMETECH INTERNATIONAL, INC., v.GRAND VISION GAMING, LLC, TIMOTHY CARSON, and MERLE FRANK, and JOHN DOES 1-10.United States District Court for the District of MontanaGameTech International, Inc. is a supplier of electronic bingo equipment, including hand-held bingo units, fixed-base units and turnkey account and management software...

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Case Update: Worlds.com v. NCSoft

Posted on April 15, 2009
You may recall that Worlds.com sued NCSoft last Christmas Eve in the Eastern District of Texas. In an interesting development, the case has been transferred to the Northern District of California. On April 13, 2009, NCSoft filed an unopposed motion to transfer the case to California, and the judge signed the order on April 14, 2009, to transfer the case on or after May 4, 2009...

New Case: Dream Games v. PC Onsite (9th Cir) [C]

Posted on April 13, 2009
Dream Games of Arizona Inc. v. PC Onsite9th Cir., No. 07-15847, 4/2/2009This is a placeholder post until we can review and provide more info. But in brief...(From BNA): A company that engages in illegal conduct with its copyrighted video bingo game system is nevertheless entitled to statutory damages in an infringement suit, the U...

Banner & Witcoff Secures Pandora Win

Posted on April 09, 2009
For those Pandora fans out there, I am pleased to report that our law firm represents Pandora in this case. If any of the media who track my blog would like to speak to the attorneys who handle this case, let me know and I can put you in touch with them...

New Cases: Wizards of the Coast [C]

Posted on April 09, 2009
If anyone is interested, Wizards of the Coast shot off three new copyright lawsuits against various defendants who uploaded the Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook 2 to various file sharing web sites.Filed: April 6, 2009Court: U.S. Federal Court for the Western District of WashingtonCase 1: Wizards of the Coast LLC v...

Case Update: MOAEC v. Pandora [P] (April 8, 2009)

Posted on April 09, 2009
April 8, 2009, Chicago -- The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin granted summary judgment for Banner & Witcoff?s client Pandora in a patent infringement suit brought by MOAEC, Inc. Pandora is a well-known, personalized, Internet radio service, available on PCs, home devices and mobile phones...

Game show patents...

Posted on April 08, 2009
So I just ran in to Tom Bergeron in the lobby of my office building, and it got me thinking: how many game shows have patent protection? Game shows are games, which provide function (i.e., usefulness). Games have methods of game play. Ergo, game shows should be patentable, provided they meet the statutory requirements of novelty and nonobviousness (yes, there is also recent law--the Bilski case--that brings into question whether a game show is statutory subject matter, but a decent patent attorney (like me!) can draft claims that meet the Bilski requirements)...

We are now on Twitter!

Posted on April 07, 2009
Hey everyone, PatentArcade.com is now on TWITTER! Yep, you can follow us by following GameLawyer at twitter.com, or by selecting the link on the right of the PatentArcade.com home page.

Triangle Game Conference

Posted on April 06, 2009
We will be attending the Triangle Game Conference in Raleigh, NC, on April 29-30. Please let us know if you will be there and would like to meet. Steve Change from my firm will be speaking at 4pm on April 29 on the panel for "he Law of Gaming: Legal Protections, Perils, Pitfalls for Game Developers...

Case Update: MDY v. Blizzard

Posted on April 06, 2009
The creator of a software bot designed to allow users of Blizzard Entertainment Inc.'s World of Warcraft to continue playing the online role-playing game while away from their computers remains on the hook for a $6.5 million judgment, although Blizzard's request to have MDY Industries LLC pay significantly more in damages was denied...

Bear with me...

Posted on April 02, 2009
...while I play with layout changes... and NO, there will NOT be advertisements on the blog!Thanks,Ross

News/Update: Cloud Gaming

Posted on March 31, 2009
Cloud computing has been a hot topic lately. Just ask Dell, whose application to register the trademark CLOUD COMPUTING was refused because the term is already generic. Amazon, Google, and other service providers also offer cloud computing services...

Can it be true?

Posted on March 26, 2009

Update: ADC v. Microsoft et al.

Posted on March 25, 2009
In a previous post, we reported on the filing of this patent lawsuit regarding pay-for-download software over a computer network, e.g., including games. Well it appears that Sony is out of the lawsuit, and Microsoft & Nintendo remain. The dismissal was voluntary by ADC, as Sony never made an appearance in the lawsuit...

GDC 2009 - Are you here, too?

Posted on March 25, 2009
Shoot me an email if you want to meet for coffee.

THE FAMILY GUY v. JIMINY CRICKET (Copyright Fair Use)

Posted on March 18, 2009
Bourne Co. v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. et al.U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.March 16, 2009Ok, the case isn't REALLY Peter Griffin versus a cricket, but it made you look, right? The case is really Bourne Co. v. 20th Century Fox...

New Case: Tetris Co. v. BioSocia Inc. (S.D.N.Y) [Copyright]

Posted on March 16, 2009
The Tetris Co. on March 12, 2009, filed a new lawsuit against BioSocia Inc. for copyright infringement and unfair competition. The suit is based on BioSocia's game Blockles, which is a "tetris-like clone." A screenshot of Blockles from www.iminlikewithyou...

News: Sheperd Farey/AP Copyright Dispute Images

Posted on March 16, 2009
This isn't exactly video game related, so I won't take up much of your time, but if anyone was looking for a side-by-side comparison of the Shepherd Farey Obama poster next to the photo that AP alleges it infringes, here you go. Farey and AP have fired countersuits against each other to try to resolve whether this is copyright infringement or fair use...

Patent Reform 2009

Posted on March 04, 2009

Ross Dannenberg Speaking at GDC 2009

Posted on March 04, 2009

Case: Zynga v. CLZ Concepts (filed 2/27/09, ND Cal.) [copyright]

Posted on March 03, 2009

CASE SETTLED: Square Enix v. various sword retailers

Posted on February 26, 2009
On February 24, 2009, Square Enix settled another lawsuit. According to its press release, the lawsuit named at least four national wholesalers of unlicensed sword replicas and their principals that have infringed Square Enix's FINAL FANTASY® franchise of videogames and CG-animated film, specifically its copyright and trademark rights in the swords...

New Look/Features for the Patent Arcade

Posted on February 25, 2009
Well I finally got around to upgrading the blog to Google's new beta service, so we've updated the look and feel a little bit, while keeping the overall simple blue header theme. New features include the ability to filter posts by labels, better subscription options, and better integration of useful add-ons such as patent searching...

Test Post - Please Disregard

Posted on February 24, 2009
Just testing some new software. Please disregard.Technorati Profile

Case: Harmonix v. Konami (Mass.)

Posted on February 21, 2009
Harmonix and Viacom jointly filed suit in the District of Massachusetts against Konami for patent infringement. The lawsuit alleges Konami?s ?ROCK REVOLUTION? video game infringes U.S. Pat. No., 7,459,624 entitled "Game controller simulating a musical instrument...

Resource: Free video game course instruction

Posted on February 03, 2009
I don't normally post non-legal content, but this one is a good resource for budding video game designers: 70+ Open Courseware Links for Game Designers and Developers. Most of the resources appear to be links to MITs open course program, or other universities with similar offerings, but this is the first compilation of all such resources that I have seen in one place...

News: Santa Clara Law School Hosts Open House in Second Life

Posted on January 22, 2009
From Leigh Jones, Associate editor at the National Law Journal:--In what is considered the first event of its kind, Santa Clara University School of Law is holding an open house in the virtual world of Second Life on Jan. 22.Visitors to Second Life, an Internet-based universe where real-life users assign themselves as cartoon characters and go to virtual, animated locations, will travel virtually to Santa Clara Island to see the school...

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