Intellectual Property Law

Case Update: Harmonix v. Konami close to settlement

Posted on June 02, 2010
Well it looks like one of the two Harmonix/Konami cases might be settling. In Harmonix Music Systems, Inc. v Konami Digital Entertainment Co, Ltd., civil action 1:09-cv-10206 (D.Mass), the parties on June 1, 2010, jointly filed a status report with the court, indicating:Plaintiffs Harmonix Music Systems, Inc...

Case: Okor v. Atari Games Corp. et al.

Posted on May 31, 2010
Okor v. Atari Games Corp. et al76 Fed. Appx. 327 (Fed. Cir. 2003). I. Statement of FactsThis case is one in a series of attempts by Joseph Kwame Okor to enforce two patents against Sony and other companies. The patents at issue, U.S. Patent Nos. 4,126,851 (?851 Patent?) and 4,127,849 (?849 Patent?) both name Okor as the sole inventor...

Attending Trade Shows Leads to Personal Jurisdiction

Posted on May 24, 2010
Patent Rights Protection Group, LLC ("PRPG"), a patent-holding company, previously filed suits in the District of Nevada accusing various organizations of allegedly infringing U.S. Patents No. 6,475,087 (?the ?087 patent) and No. 6,860,814 (the ?814 patent)...

LimeWire liable for copyright infringement

Posted on May 13, 2010
Not exactly video game related, but our readers tend to also be interested in file-sharing and online music distribution cases, so...LimeWire was recently found liable for copyright infringement of its users by a Federal court on Tuesday, May 11. As reported by WIRED, LimeWire is potentially on the hook for massive damages, which could cripple or bankrupt the company...

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History Repeats Itself

Posted on May 12, 2010
Nintendo of America, Inc. (Nintendo) filed suit yesterday in a Washington district court, accusing an individual, Kevin Niu, of infringing Nintendo's copyrights and trademarks in its Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii. Specifically, Nintendo alleges that Niu makes and sells game copiers that are designed to copy the software in the game cartridges used by the Nintendo DS, and that he uses the "DS" and "Wii" trademarks on various websites to market the copiers...

Case Update: Worlds.com case SETTLED!

Posted on April 26, 2010
Well folks, looks like Worlds.com v. NCSoft has settled. The court on April 23, 2010, ordered dismissal with prejudice based on a binding settlement agreement between Worlds.com and NCSoft. Terms of the settlement appear to be confidential. Now we wait and see whether Worlds...

Blizzard Sues ?StarCrack? Hackers

Posted on April 17, 2010
On Monday, April 12, 2010, Blizzard filed a lawsuit in federal court in California against Justin Marshall and five unnamed defendants for copyright infringement, circumvention of copyright protection systems in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (?DMCA?), breach of contract, and tortious interference with contract...

New Case: IA Labs v. Nintendo

Posted on April 15, 2010
Nintendo?s Wii gaming system is again the subject of patent infringement lawsuit. IA Labs, LLC recently filed a Complaint in the District of Maryland against Nintendo alleging infringement of U.S. Patent Nos. 7,121,982 and 7,331,226. Nintendo?s allegedly infringing activities and products relate to the ?Wii console video game machines and related ?Wii Fit?, Wii Fit Plus?, Wii Balance Board?, ?Wii Remote?, Wii Nunchuck?, 'Wii Motion Plus?, ?Wii Zaper? peripheral devices and software...

Case Update: Anascape, Ltd. v. Nintendo of America Inc.

Posted on April 14, 2010
On Tuesday, April 13, 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in favor of Nintendo in Anascape, Ltd. v. Nintendo of America Inc. (Docket No. 2008-1500), a patent infringement case appealed to the Federal Circuit from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas (Case No...

Kotaku Census 2010: The Full Results

Posted on April 07, 2010
Kotaku's full census results are in, and there are some interesting points...Re Consoles:- 65% of you own multiple consoles, while a quarter of participating Kotaku readers are in possession of all three current generation machines. - Only 5% of participating readers own a PSPgo console...

See You at Triangle Games 2010!

Posted on April 05, 2010
If you're planning to attend the 2010 Triangle Games Conference in Raleigh, NC, please stop by and say 'hello'!Steve, Ross, and Shawn are presenting a panel on recent developments in video game lawsuits, and lessons game developers can learn from them...

ABA IP Section Spring Conference is coming up!

Posted on March 22, 2010
For attorneys, this is the one annual conference that IP lawyers cannot afford to miss. Now in its 25th anniversary year, the Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference of the ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law provides a gathering of the foremost authorities on the state of intellectual property law, including judges, government officials, in-house counsel, academics, and private practitioners...

Appeal Update & Decision: Fenner Investments Ltd. v. Microsoft et al.

Posted on March 17, 2010
Back in 2007, Fenner Investment Ltd. sued Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony for infringement of U.S. Patent No. 6,297,751, relating to low voltage joystick port interfaces. Claim 1 is reproduced below:1. An interface between a joystick device having a first source voltage anda processor, comprising:a Resistor-Capacitor (RC) network, connected to the joystick device, saidRC network having a capacitor that generates an analog joystick positionmeasurement signal; andan interface circuit having a second source voltage that is lower than thefirst source voltage, includinga buffer circuit, in a first operation mode of said interface, receivingsaid analog joystick position measurement signal, outputting a first logic stateas a digital signal before said analog joystick measurement signal exceeds saidpredetermined threshold, and outputting a second logic state as said digitalsignal after said analog joystick measurement signal exceeds said predeterminedthreshold; anda pulse generator generating a pulse based on said digital signal in saidfirst operation mode of said interface, a width of said pulse representing acoordinate position of said joystick device, the capacitance value of saidcapacitor being a function of said predetermined threshold that preventsdeviation of the width of said pulse from expected values...

Case Update: Motiva v. Nintendo - Officially moved to Washington

Posted on March 15, 2010
As we previously reported here, Motiva LLC sued Nintendo for allegedly infringing U.S. Pat. No. 7,292,151, which is directed to a "Human Movement Measurement System." The patent relates to "a system and methods for setup and measuring the position and orientation (pose) of transponders...

Qik - Parrot Drone by radivent

Posted on March 13, 2010

Qik - Power Gig by radivent

Posted on March 13, 2010

Case Update: Bissoon-Dath v. Sony Computer Entertainment of America, Inc.

Posted on March 12, 2010
On Friday, March 5, 2010, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted Sony?s motion for summary judgment in Bissoon-Dath v. Sony Computer Entertainment of America, Inc., Case No. 08-cv-012350MHP.Bissoon-Dath and a fellow plaintiff are screenwriters who previously accused Sony of copying elements of several of the plaintiff?s stories in developing Sony?s God of War video game...

Ross Dannenberg Speaking at GDC 3/11 and 3/13/10

Posted on March 10, 2010
Hey everyone, if you're at GDC 2010, I will be speaking at the following two sessions:Video Game IP - What You Need to Know NOWSpeaker: Ross Dannenberg (Partner, Banner & Witcoff, Ltd)Date/Time: Thursday (March 11, 2010) 9:00am ? 10:00amLocation (room): Room 130, North HallTrack: Business and ManagementFormat: 60-minute LectureExperience Level: AllSession DescriptionIntellectual property can be a powerful asset for any company, young or old...

BOOK RELEASE: Computer Games and Virtual Worlds

Posted on March 01, 2010
The Patent Arcade is pleased to announce that a new book edited by our own Ross Dannenberg (i.e., me), along with Steve Mortinger, Roxanne Christ, Chrissie Scelsi, and Farnaz Alemi, is now available for purchase from the ABA website:BUY YOUR COPY TODAY!!! (the authors do not receive any royalties for this book--all proceeds benefit the American Bar Association's IP Section)

Outrageous! Why am I Outraged?

Posted on March 01, 2010
So word has hit the Internet that Facebook's U.S. Patent No. 7,669,123, entitled ?Dynamically Providing a News Feed About a User of a Social Network,? issued last week, and it?s certainly created quite the buzz in chat rooms and web sites all over. Some folks seem outraged at the patent system, some are outraged at businesses who seek patents, and others seem outraged that those folks are outraged at the patent system...

A Mark Against Activision?

Posted on February 18, 2010
The immense popularity of musical video games such as Guitar Hero, Band Hero and DJ Hero appears to have generated some unwanted attention for Activision Publishing, Inc. ("Activision"). In particular, on February 12, 2010, Patent Compliance Group, Inc...

Case Update: Keller v. Electronic Arts, Inc.

Posted on February 13, 2010
On Monday, February 8, 2010, the U.S. District for the Northern District of California ruled on a motion to dismiss filed by Electronic Arts (?EA?), the National Collegiate Athletics Association (?NCAA?), and the Collegiate Licensing Company (?CLC?) in Keller v...

Coming soon: New book on Video Game IP Law

Posted on February 09, 2010
We're getting close... Stay tuned for more information about our new book. I am one of the editors, along with others from my committee at the American Bar Association:Computer Games and Virtual Worlds: A New Frontier in Intellectual Property LawBy Ross A...

SAVING PROGRESS?DO NOT SHUT OFF CONSOLE

Posted on February 08, 2010
Every gamer has anxiously awaited this message to appear - you may have just beaten the final boss level after several unsuccessful attempts or you may have finally beaten a friend?s high score. As we all know, bragging rights are useless until you can prove it...

Case Update: Konami and Harmonix AGREE on something!

Posted on January 28, 2010
In an interesting development in the ongoing dispute between Harmonix and Konami over the hammer-on technology in the Rock Band/Guitar Hero games, they have filed a JOINT motion to stay proceedings:Date # Docket Text 1/27/2010 57 Joint MOTION to Stay Proceedings by Harmonix Music Systems, Inc...

iSlate, iTablet, IP!

Posted on January 25, 2010
So here we are, on the eve of Apple?s next big announcement. Consensus is we?ll hear about a new ?iTablet? type of device. Something that, like the iPod and iPhone, will bring a wealth of slick new features that customers will adore and competitors will copy...

New Case: LottoTron, Inc. v. SBG Online Casino et. al.

Posted on January 24, 2010
On January 21st, LottoTron, Inc. filed a complaint against eleven Costa Rican entities alleging infringement of U.S. Patent No. 5,921,865 entitled ?Computerized Lottery Wagering System.? As previously reported, LottoTron has asserted infringement of the same patent against other entities over the past few years...

Licensing Executives Society (LES) Celebrates 45 Years

Posted on January 21, 2010
I usually don't report press release type stuff, but the LES is an important part of game development. Namely, licensing content is a HUGE part of game creation, design, and development. I should also mention that, while I am not actually a member of this group, others in my firm are...

Case Update: Hasbro, Inc. v. Atari, S.A.

Posted on December 18, 2009
Earlier this week, Hasbro, which owns the intellectual property rights in Dungeons & Dragons, filed a lawsuit against Atari over Atari?s allegedly unauthorized sublicensing of its rights in Dungeons & Dragons to Namco Bandai, one of Hasbro?s major competitors...

Case Update: No Doubt v. Activision Publishing Inc.

Posted on December 09, 2009
Activision has responded in federal court to a lawsuit originally filed in California state court by No Doubt over Activision?s use of the band?s likeness in ?Band Hero.? According to Activision, the case implicates federal copyright law, and thus federal court (rather than state court) is the proper place for the litigation...

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