Intellectual Property Law

News: Speaking at GDC 2009

Posted on January 16, 2009
I just wanted to take a minute and let everyone know that I will be speaking at GDC 2009 (March 25-27, 2009) this year. I'm not sure which day my presentation will be, but I will be presenting patent lawsuit case studies that are relevant to the video game industry...

News: Guitar Hero/Rock Band for a REAL guitar

Posted on January 09, 2009
You know, I've been waiting for over a year since I first heard about Guitar Rising, a Guitar Hero style video game that you can play with a REAL guitar. It seems to be the holy grail of interactivity--if you win the game, you have ACTUAL SKILLS you can use in real life to play an instrument...

New Case: Worlds.com v. NCSoft (E.D.Tex., filed Dec. 24, 2008)

Posted on January 05, 2009
Merry Christmas, you've been sued. It's not uncommon for plaintiffs to file lawsuits around the holidays in order to "turn the screws" on defendants, and that appears to be the case here. Worlds.com sued NCSoft (maker of City of Heroes, City of Villains, Tabula Rasa) on December 24, 2008, in the Eastern District of Texas over alleged infringement of U...

Case Update: Nintendo v. Nyko SETTLED

Posted on December 18, 2008
As previously reported, a href="http://www.patentarcade.com/2008/06/new-case-nintendo-v-nyko-wd-wash-filed.html"Nintendo sued Nyko/a for design patent infringement and trademark infringement over the Wii's nunchuk controller. On Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008, the parties filed a STIPULATION for Dismissal of Action by parties, indicating the case has been settled...

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In memoriam: A loss to the Virtual World community...

Posted on December 02, 2008
The Patent Arcade is sad to report that we have lost one of our own. Steve Davidson, a friend, colleague, and groundbreaking attorney in the video game and virtual world fields, passed away unexpectedly this morning, December 2, 2008. Steve spent most of his career with Leonard, Street, and Deinard, and recently retired to his own private consulting practice...

Case: Capcom v. MKR (ND Cal. 2008)

Posted on November 24, 2008
Capcom Co., Ltd. et. al. v. The MKR GroupN.D. Cal. 2008(by Shawn Gorman) While relatively short lived, this legal battle provides several insights for both video game producers and their legal teams. At issue was whether Capcom?s ?Dead Rising? video game infringed any copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property rights of MKR, the owner of the copyrights and trademarks to the 1979 motion picture "George A...

Articles about IP in Virtual Worlds

Posted on November 20, 2008
I recently wrote a series of short articles for LinuxInsider regarding IP issues as they arise in virtual worlds and video games. Each article was necessarily short, so there wasn't room to go into a lot of detail, but it provides some basic IP information regarding patents, copyrights, and trademarks for those that are interested:The Rocky Legal Landscape of Virtual Worlds, Part 1: Trademarks (Nov...

Case: THQ v. Activision - SETTLED

Posted on November 19, 2008
Well, as is often the case, the cost to settle far outweighs the cost to litigate to prove a point. It appears that is true here. As we previously reported, THQ sued Activision over the cover artwork that Activision was going to use for its baja racing game...

News: Trademark Registration for Second Life Avatar

Posted on November 17, 2008
Its not every day that we get to report TRADEMARK news, so this is a refreshing change from the norm. On Nov. 11, 2008, the United States Patent & Trademark Office granted what is believed to be the first trademark registration for a user's avatar as an indication of the source of goods & services...

New Case: Motiva v. Nintendo (patent infringement)

Posted on November 11, 2008
Well, it looks like Nintendo has been sued for patent infringement again. This time by Motiva LLC, for infringement of U.S. Pat. No. 7,292,151, which is directed to a "Human Movement Measurement System." The patent appears to relate to "a system and methods for setup and measuring the position and orientation (pose) of transponders...

Case: ESS v. Rock Star (9th Cir. 2008) [T]

Posted on November 10, 2008
E.S.S. Entertainment 2000 v. Rock Star Video__ F.Supp.2d __ (9th Cir. 2008)(by Shawn Gorman) The (in)famous Grand Theft Auto series, produced by Rock Star Games, has become synonymous with legal entanglement. As noted by the appeals court, the series ?is known for an irreverent and sometimes crass brand of humor, gratuitous violence and sex, and overall seediness...

IP Alert: In re Bilski

Posted on October 30, 2008
Further to the previous post, here is a more comprehensive write-up prepared by Brad Wright, a partner of mine at Banner & Witcoff, Ltd.:Intellectual Property Advisory: Court Limits Patents on Business Methods By Bradley C. Wright On October 30, 2008, the U...

Case: In re Bilski limits patentable subject matter

Posted on October 30, 2008
While not strictly a video game case, the Federal Circuit today (October 30, 2008) released its decision in In re Bilski regarding the limits on patentable subject matter, which could certainly affect patentability of some video game patents. In its decision, the Federal Circuit reaffirms that the proper test for patentability of processes is the "machine or transformation" test as set forth by the United States Supreme Court...

New Case: ADC Technology v. Microsoft, Nintendo, & Sony

Posted on October 30, 2008
ADC Technology on October 27, 2008, filed a new patent infringement lawsuit against Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony, alleging that each of the Xbox360, Wii, and PlayStation3, respectively, infringe on one or more of 5 different patents owned by ADC. The case was filed in the Western District of Washington, and is captioned ADC Technology, Inc...

New Case: THQ v. Activision Blizzard

Posted on October 26, 2008
On October 23, 2008, THQ filed a new lawsuit against Activision Blizzard for trade dress and copyright infringement regarding Activision's planned release of "SCORE International Baja 1000 The Official Game" in late October 2008. THQ alleges that Activision's game infringes the trade dress and copyrights in THQ's game "Baja Edge of Control," which was released in September 2008 (with package art available since June 2008)...

News: Japanese avatar kills virtual husband after "divorce"

Posted on October 24, 2008
The stories just keep on flowing. Who knew that divorce could lead to a virtual killing, and subsequent arrest for hacking? Read the story here. In short, a 43-year-old Japanese woman killed her online husband's digital persona because she was so angry that his avatar "divorced" her avatar in the online game Maple Story...

News: Dutch court convicts teens for theft of virtual goods

Posted on October 22, 2008
From the AP wire:October 21, 2008. AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - A Dutch court has convicted two youths of theft for stealing virtual items in a computer game and sentenced them to community service.Only a handful of such cases have been heard in the world, and they have reached varying conclusions about the legal status of "virtual goods...

New Case: Willis v. Electronic Arts (D.Nev.)

Posted on September 30, 2008
This is really more of a straight copyright case than a video game case, so we won't be actively following it. However, if anyone is interested, Gerald Willis (composer of the UNLV fight song Win With The Rebels), has sued EA for inclusion of the song in a slew of EA Sports titles...

Case: Aristocrat v. IGT (Fed. Cir. 2008)

Posted on September 24, 2008
Aristocrat v. IGTUnited States Court of Appeals for the Federal CircuitDecided Sep. 22, 2008At this stage, this case is more about an esoteric legal issue, rather than any substantive issue of infringement regarding slot machine games or video games, so I will keep it brief...

FLASH OF GENIUS: Would a patent attorney be a hero or villain in film?

Posted on September 23, 2008
Villian... I suspect.Its not every day that we see a video game embrace an attorney as a central character. Normally the attorneys are the ridicule of the game, but one game did just that: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Hollywood, on the other hand, embraces the legal profession almost all too often, whether for ridicule, storytelling, murder, suspense, education, or just plain fun...

Case Update: Activision v. Gibson - Claim Construction

Posted on September 18, 2008
As previously reported, Gibson asserts that Activision's Guitar Hero franchise infringes on some Gibson patents. Gibson's patent claims a "musical instrument" that produces an "instrument audio signal." Naturally, in view of Guitar Hero only useing a controller SHAPED like a musical instrument, and only producing inputs based on button presses, construction of these terms is critical to this case...

Case Update: Bally v. IGT (D.Nev.)

Posted on September 12, 2008
In Bally Gaming Inc. v. IGT, case number 3:06-cv-00483, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, Bally Sued International Game Technology (IGT) for infringement of U.S. Pat. No. 7,100,916. Claim 1 of the '916 patent reads:1. An electromechanical indicator comprising: a rotary body having an axis of rotation and which is provided with a plurality of segments radiating from said axis of rotation, wherein said segments are associated with at least two different indicia; a motor coupled to said rotary body such that said rotary body is adapted for a rotating mode and a stationary mode about said axis of rotation; a pointer associated with said rotary body to point to a predetermined segment of said plurality of segments when said rotary body is in said stationary mode; and a segment detector for detecting a rotary position of each of said plurality of segments whereby said motor rotates said rotary body to point said pointer to said predetermined segment which is determined before said rotary body enters a stationary mode...

Case: Merit v. JVL settles in E.D. Penn.

Posted on September 11, 2008
Merit Industries Inc. v. JVL Corp.case number 03-1618 (E.D. Penn - Settled)Merit Industries and JVL Corp. have settled their ongoing litigation over countertop arcade games. Merit sued JVL back in 2003 for patent infringement of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,575,717; 5,743,799 and 6,082,887...

News: CBS sues NFL over Fantasy stats...

Posted on September 08, 2008
In a move reminiscent of the CBC v. MLB case over use of baseball players' names and statistics in fantasy football leagues, CBS Interactive sued the NFL Players' Association over the rights to use NFL players' names and statistics without having to pay a license fee...

Case: Frybarger v. IBM (9th Cir. 1987) - Copyright

Posted on September 01, 2008
Frybarger v. Int'l Business Mach. Corp.812 F.2d 525 (9th Cir. 1987)Before the introduction of sprawling virtual environments, ragdoll physics, and parallel GPUs, the video game industry lived in an 8-bit world. As is still the case, the creative content of games was and is limited by the machines of the day...

News: Nintendo sued over Wii.... again.

Posted on August 21, 2008
Nintendo faces another lawsuit over various aspects of its Nintendo Wii video game console. This time from Hillcrest Laboratories, Inc., a Maryland-based startup, that designs, develops and sells an interactive media system called HoME, which uses a combination of graphical, zooming and interface software for TV and motion control technology called Freespace...

Case: Incredible Tech. v. Virtual Tech (7th Cir. 2005)

Posted on August 15, 2008
Incredible Technologies, Inc. v. Virtual Technologies, Inc.400 F.3d 1007 (7th Cir. 2005)If someone familiar with Golden Tee, the ubiquitous pub golf video game, was asked to describe its unique characteristics, he or she would undoubtedly mention the giant trackball that sits in the center of the game board...

Case Update: Anascape v. Nintendo final judgment

Posted on July 25, 2008
In the ongoing dispute between Anascape, Ltd., an invention and license-holding company, against Nintendo of America regarding Nintendo's use of three patents a jury had found the video game company to infringe, the judge on July 23, 2008, granted a permanent injunction in his final decision...

News: Banner & Witcoff Secures Virtual World Win

Posted on July 24, 2008
Banner & Witcoff Secures Favorable Settlement for Client Regarding Intellectual Property and Land Dispute in Second Life (Washington, D.C., July 22, 2008) - Banner & Witcoff Ltd., one of the largest law firms in the United States dedicated solely to the practice of intellectual property law, is pleased to announce they have secured a favorable settlement on behalf of its client regarding a dispute in Second Life regarding ownership of regions of virtual land, and associated intellectual property...

Case: MDY v. Blizzard (D.Az. 2008) [C]

Posted on July 15, 2008
MDY Industries, LLC v. Blizzard Entertainment, Inc., et al. (D. Ariz. 2008)Looks like Blizzard has won round 1 of the WoWGlider/MMOGlider lawsuit, with the District Court ruling that MDY's bot application violates Blizzard's copyrights, and also causes tortious interference with Blizzard's other paying customers...

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