Intellectual Property Law

Modern Censorship in Russia

Posted on November 18, 2009
Folks in Russia weren't impressed with a scene in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 where a Russian terror cell shoots up an airport full of civilians. After threats of government bans or recalls, Activision has reportedly decided to remove the offensive scene from the Russian version of the game...

Don't You Wish You Were an Activision Shareholder Now?

Posted on November 18, 2009
Set to be the most successful video game of all time (according to press releases anyway), Activision paired up with retailers like Game Stop and Best Buy to ensure that shelves were fully stocked for stores open late to receive the throngs of gamers vying to be among the first to claim the latest version of its earlier hit Call of Duty, "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2"...

"Hot Coffee" Dispute Changes Industry

Posted on October 26, 2009
It has been reported that the class-action lawsuit opposing Take-Two and its shareholders has now been settled for $20 million. The dispute allegedly began when it was discovered that a sexual minigame hidden in the code of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas could be unlocked by a downloaded hack...

What can a team of two accomplish?

Posted on October 26, 2009
A lot, apparently, if you the Krabbits on your side. Indie developer Krabbitsoft has done what some thought was impossible, developing and releasing an exciting, graphics-laden Action/RPG based on their own IP. In their words: "Hack n' slash combat focused, KWO now includes Battle Modes for those too twitchy to satisfy with Story Mode...

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Left 4 Dead 2 Appeal Unsuccessful

Posted on October 26, 2009
Valve to issue heavily edited version to satisfy Australian censors It appears that Australian fans of Valve's critically acclaimed Left 4 Dead survival horror franchise will have to miss out on much of the blood n' guts that the rest of us have been eagerly anticipating in its latest installment, Left 4 Dead 2...

Messy Fallout

Posted on October 23, 2009
Interplay Entertainment Corporation ("Interplay") has reportedly obtained a ten day extension to answer a preliminary injunction filed by Bethesda Softworks LLC ("Bethesda") in a court battle involving its licensing agreement with Bethesda for the rights to Fallout 3, Fallout 4 and Fallout 5...

Ontario tax credits and assistance for tech companies

Posted on October 22, 2009
Ontario tries to show you the money (but for how long?) In these turbulent economic times, it has never been more important to take advantage of existing government programs and tax credits. Ontario has a number of such programs and tax credits to assist emerging video game companies...

Jack Attack

Posted on October 02, 2009
Jack Thompson, the famous anti-videogame cruisader who has been sued by video game publishers and was disbarred last year by the Supreme Court of Florida, has now sued Facebook for $40 million, claiming that Facebook harmed him by failing to remove a poll asking whether he should be killed...

Australia Debates New Game Rating

Posted on October 01, 2009
The banning of Valve's soon-to-be-released Left 4 Dead 2 has spurred debate in the land down under as to whether Australia should adopt a "R18+" rating for video games. Although "R18+" is used for films, the highest classification available for video games is the "MA15+", meaning for audiences 15 or older...

California Ban May Reach US Supreme Court

Posted on October 01, 2009
California legislation prohibiting the sale of violent video games to minors may still have its day in the US Supreme Court. California legislators are hoping the big court will hear oral arguments in their appeal of the decision to strike down the legislation, upheld by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal this year...

EA wins Madden lawsuit

Posted on October 01, 2009
Former NFL player Jim Brown sued EA over its use of a character in Madden NFL. The character looks like Brown, but was not identified as Brown, and wore a different number. A federal court judge in Los Angeles has now ruled in favour of EA, concluding that the First Amendment protected EA's expression in this case...

Venezuela Gets Tough on Virtual Violence; Real Violence Next

Posted on September 01, 2009
Venezuelan lawmakers have taken the first steps towards banning video games deemed excessively violent, in an attempt to reduce actual violence in the country. Reuters reports that a bill banning sales of violent video games passed a first vote in the National Assembly recently, but must still pass a second vote and be signed into law by President Chavez before it takes effect...

An October Release for Brutal Legend

Posted on August 14, 2009
The game Brutal Legend featuring Jack Black as a heavy metal roadie fighting evil in a mythical world will be released in October 2009 now that a settlement has been reached in the litigation between Activision Entertainment Inc. and Double Fine Productions...

It May be a Brutal Rocktober: Counterclaim Filed in Activision Lawsuit

Posted on July 30, 2009
Submitted by Sylvie Lang In a counterclaim filed last week, game maker Double Fine Productions allegedly accused Activision Entertainment Inc. of trying to kill the scheduled October 2009 release of the game "Brutal Legend". Brutal Legend features Jack Black as a heavy metal roadie fighting evil in an ancient mythical world...

CTA Bans Video Game Ads; ESA Sues

Posted on July 29, 2009
The Entertainment Software Association announced that they are suing the Chicago Transit Authority over the CTA's decision to ban all ads for "M" and "AO" rated video games on trains and buses. The policy, which came into effect January 1, 2009, follows the CTA's decision to pull ads for GTA IV last April for "inspiring violence" - a decision that was ultimately reversed when Take-Two sued and later settled with the CTA...

New York Ban on Texting, Gaming, Surfing While Driving

Posted on July 22, 2009
The New York State Senate has passed a bill which bans texting, playing video games or surfing the Internet while driving, adding to the state's already in-force legislation that makes it illegal to talk on a cell phone while driving. The measure imposes fines of up to $150 for using hand-held devices or laptops to send text messages or view and read data and images...

Online game company sues bot software company and wins

Posted on July 16, 2009
Submitted by Dr. Andreas Lober In an unprecedented case in German jurisprudence, the operator of an online game sued the provider of a bot software, and won. The court granted a cease and desist order, so the bot must no longer be distributed. 1. Facts of the case: The plaintiff developed and operates one of the worlds most popular massively multiplayer online brower based strategy games...

Game On: Midway Asset Sale Approved

Posted on July 09, 2009
Submitted by Sylvie Lang On July 1, 2009, the bankruptcy judge in the Midway Games' Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings reportedly approved the $33 million dollar sale of most of the company's assets to Warner Bros. Allegedly, Warner Bros. was the only bidder for Midway's assets...

Apple may be "Out of Luck"

Posted on July 06, 2009
It has been reported that Cupertino-based Apple is being sued for an iPhone video game entitled "ParkingLot". It has been alleged that this game, which requires players to move around cars in a parking lot in order to release a blocked-in car, resembles a 1977 brain-teaser entitled "Lots of Luck" ("Lots")...

GTA IV Offers Meth Recipe?

Posted on July 06, 2009
Rockstar and its Grand Theft Auto franchise are no strangers to controversy (hot coffee, anyone?), but according to a recent report in the Times, the British Board of Film Classification investigated reports that a recipe for crystal meth was part of the game play in GTA IV...

Gold Farming banned in China

Posted on July 02, 2009
New Chinese legislation has banned the exchange of virtual currency for real goods and services and consequently, it bans the practice of gold farming. The legislation also outlaws the purchase of virtual currency by minors and the use of the virtual currency for gambling...

Final Fantasy XI -not quite the fantasy for Square Enix Inc.

Posted on July 02, 2009
A class action lawsuit claiming $5 million in damages has been filed by a San Francisco, California resident against Square Enix Inc. ("Square Enix"). The suit was filed on June 18, 2009 in a California District Court and alleges, inter alia, that Square Enix engaged in false advertising and unfair business practices in relation to the online game Final Fantasy XI (the "Allegations")...

Kombat over Midway's Assets Begins...and it Could be Mortal

Posted on June 29, 2009
Submitted by Sylvie Lang Threshold Entertainment, a Hollywood production company, reportedly filed a complaint and an objection to the proposed auction of Midway Games' assets in a U.S. bankruptcy court on June 24, 2009. It has been suggested that Threshold's claim is an attempt to protect its rights following Warner Bros...

Konami Sued for Discrimination

Posted on June 29, 2009
Konami, who produces Metal Gear, has been sued in Japan by one of its employees. The employee claims she has been discriminated against, alleging that she was demoted and suffered a pay cut after returning from her maternity leave. The employee seeks the equivalent of $344,000 in damages...

Nintendo Co. can Shout Wii over Legal Victory

Posted on June 25, 2009
It has been reported that Nintendo Co. has won the dismissal of a lawsuit instituted by Guardian Media Technologies Ltd ("Guardian"). It was reported that the Texas based plaintiff had alleged that Nintendo Co., in its Wii video-game system, had infringed its patent for a technology used to impose parental controls...

Closure of game exhibit leads to lawsuit

Posted on June 17, 2009
The New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in US federal court regarding the closure of an exhibit at the Sancturary for Independent Media. The exhibit featued the game "Virtual Jihadi", a FPS which involves players hunting down George W. Bush...

Midway Games Bankruptcy Dispute Settled

Posted on June 11, 2009
Submitted by Sylvie Lang The legal dispute between Midway Game's unsecured creditors committee and its majority shareholder, Mark Thomas, over the company's bankruptcy has been settled. The creditors asked a Delaware bankruptcy judge to approve the settlement on June 4, 2009...

Duke Nukem Forever or Never?

Posted on May 26, 2009
It has been reported that Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. ("Take-Two") has filed a lawsuit against Apogee Software Ltd. because of the developer's "continually delayed" delivery of the game Duke Nukem Forever, a project that has been ongoing since 1997 ...

Midway's Rollercoaster Continues - Creditors Sue Board Members

Posted on May 26, 2009
Submitted by Sylvie Lang On May 12, 2009, Midway creditors filed suit against former and current members of Midway's board, former major stakeholder Sumner Redstone, his daughter and former chairperson, Shari Redstone and current owner Mark Thomas, among others...

Midway's Rollercoaster Continues - Creditors Sue Board Members

Posted on May 25, 2009
Submitted by Sylvie Lang On May 12, 2009, Midway creditors filed suit against former and current members of Midway's board, former major stakeholder Sumner Redstone, his daughter and former chairperson, Shari Redstone and current owner Mark Thomas, among others...

RCMP and York Police Arrest DVD Pirates

Posted on May 19, 2009
Much criticism has been leveled at Canada regarding its copyright laws; however, the news isn't all bad. Following a six-month investigation, the RCMP and York Police, in a collaborative effort, have arrested five men (Huici Chen, 36, Chung Ping Pang, 37, Tongjin Chen, 62, all from Markham, Ya Ouyang, 29, of Scarborough and Huixin Chen, 27, of Brampton) for multiple breaches of the Canadian Copyright Act for pirating movies including "Slumdog Millionaire", the "Curious case of Benjamin Button" and "James Bond: Quantum of Solace"...

BIG FISH GAMES ACQUIRES GRUBBY GAMES

Posted on May 05, 2009
Seattle based Big Fish Games who works with more than 500 game developers has acquired Vancouver based Grubby Games, the creator of Incredibots and Professor Fizzwizzle. The acquisition of Grubby Games was attractive to Big Fish Games because of its talented group of developers and its strong cultural fit...

Controller Patent Problems Still Rumbling for Sony

Posted on May 04, 2009
An interesting and complex case was reported on GamePolitics last week, alleging patent infringement as well as fraud, conspiracy and attorney malpractice against Sony, PDP/Electro Source and their attorneys. According to the plaintiffs, Craig Thorner and his company Virtual Reality Feedback, the defendants attempted to use Mr...

Scratch DJ Game Itching for Damages and Injunctive Relief

Posted on April 30, 2009
It has been reported that Scratch DJ Game ("Scratch"), a joint venture between Genius Products ("Genius") and Numark Industries, has filed a lawsuit against publisher Activision, former partner and game developer California 7 Studios ("7 Studios") and its CEO Lewis Peterson, claiming that Activision has "engaged in intentional interference with contract, breach of contract, conversion and misappropriation of trade secrets obtained from Genius to purchase 7 Studios, which is under contract to develop the much anticipated new Hip Hop video game, Scratch: The Ultimate DJ...

Konami Drops Six Days in Fallujah_

Posted on April 30, 2009
Submitted by Sylvie Lang Japanese video game publisher Konami has decided not to publish the controversial game Six Days in Fallujah, developed by Atomic Games. The game re-enacts the Second Battle of Fallujah which took place in late 2004 during the Iraq War...

Empire Interactive Shuts Down

Posted on April 30, 2009
It has been reported that Empire Interactive, a U.K. based publisher of nearly two decades, is shutting down its operations. The closure has been announced to the employees located in its London offices while all other employees are currently being liquidated...

RETIRED NFL PLAYERS V. MADDEN AND ELECTRONIC ARTS?

Posted on April 22, 2009
GamePolitics has reported that the NFL players who won a $28 million dollar lawsuit last year against the NFL Players Association are planning on suing John Madden and Electronic Art over the Madden NFL series of games. The retired players claim that Madden and Electronic Art used them in their games without compensating the players...

Creditors Given Break in Midway Games Bankruptcy

Posted on April 17, 2009
Submitted by Sylvie Lang On April 9, 2009 the Judge overseeing the Chapter 11 Bankruptcy of Midway Games ruled that creditors of the video game publisher have permission to investigate and pursue litigation against the company's owner, Mark Thomas in relation to the transaction that led Thomas to own a controlling stake in Midway Games...

Nintendo Wins Another Patent Battle - Sony and Microsoft to Follow?

Posted on March 30, 2009
A lawsuit by Fenner Investments Ltd. of Texas against Nintendo alleging patent infringement has been dismissed by U.S. District Court. Fenner claimed that Nintendo infringed a 1998 patent relating to analog joysticks with its Gamecube and Wii. The judge granted summary judgment in favour of Nintendo on March 17, 2009, but has yet to rule on the merits of the case against Sony and Microsoft, also named in the suit...

UTAH GOVERNOR VETOES GAMING LEGISLATION

Posted on March 29, 2009
Jon Huntsman, Utah's governor vetoed HB 353, a bill which targets both movies and video games. Hunstman stated: "While protecting children from inappropriate materials is a laudable goal, the language of this bill is so broad that it will likely be struck down by the courts as an unconstitutional violation of the Dormant Commerce Clause and/or the first Amendment...

Controversial Ad Leads to Outrage ... and Potential Lawsuit

Posted on March 22, 2009
Submitted by Karine Bellavance In response to a printed ad released by the U.K. government, it is reported that Sony Computer Entertainment Europe ("Sony") is considering legal action. This ad was published as part of the Change4Life campaign, backed by the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research and Diabetes UK...

Rumoured Premium App Store Could Help Make iPhone the "Future of Game Play"

Posted on March 20, 2009
Submitted by Sylvie Lang Rumours abound that Apple will launch a premium app store this week, at the same time as it unveils an updated iPhone operating system. The new "upscale" section of the Apple app store will only handle software programs that cost $20 or more...

PALTALK HOLDINGS VS. MICROSOFT

Posted on March 11, 2009
PalTalk Holdings has instituted legal proceedings against Microsoft on the basis that Microsoft's Halo and Xbox infringe its patents related to "controlling interactive applications over multiple computers". Microsoft is challenging the validity of the patents and PalTalk's claim that the patents are worth $90 million...

New Zealand Raises the Bar for ISPs

Posted on March 02, 2009

Sony, Nintendo and Nokia Sued for Patent Infringement

Posted on March 02, 2009

Schwarzenegger's Anti-Video Game Law Terminated by Appeals Court

Posted on February 26, 2009
Sylvie Lang On Friday, February 20, 2009 a U.S. Federal Appeals Court ruled that a California law aimed at restricting the sale of violent video games to minors was unconstitutional. The ruling came in the Video Software Dealers Association v. Schwarzenegger, where the video game industry sought to block the anti-vide game law that was signed by Governor Schwarzenegger in 2005...

Arnold's law still terminated

Posted on February 24, 2009
In January 2008, we reported that the State of California had become the site of an ongoing battleground between free speech advocates and legislators seeking to limit access to violent video games. In 2005 the State Legislature passed a law that would impose fines and other sanctions on people who sold certain video games to minors...

Console manufacturers: time to update your warning notices

Posted on February 24, 2009
An article in the British Journal of Dermatology has identified a new skin disorder, affectionately called "PlayStation palmar hidradenitis". It was discovered by researchers when a 12 year-old girl was admitted to a hospital, complaining of painful sores on her palms...

HARMONIX AND VIACOM V. KONAMI

Posted on February 13, 2009
Harmonix and Viacom have instituted proceedings against Konami. The Plaintiffs who developed Rock Band are claiming that the peripheral for Konami's Rock Revolution violates a patent that they hold for controllers that simulate musical instruments. This is not the first lawsuit to involve these parties...

Why play when you can glide? Because...

Posted on February 12, 2009
In 2006, MDY Industries sought a declaration that its "Glider" program that plays World of Warcraft doesn't violate Blizzard's and Vivendi's copyrights. The Arizona District Court ruled in favour of Blizzard and Vivendi, for tortuous interference with contract, contributory copyright infringement, and vicarious copyright infringement...

An offer he couldn't refuse...

Posted on February 09, 2009
Last year we reported that the estate of Mario Puzo (the author of the original Godfather books) sued Paramount Pictures and Electronic Arts for royalties in connection with the video game. Anthony Puzo, Mario's son, initiated the lawsuit for at least $1 million in damages...

Ubi Vancouver

Posted on February 04, 2009
Ubisoft has recently acquired Vancouver developer Action Pants Inc., one of Vancouver's top game developers. Congrats to Simon, Nik, Omar and their team who created an incredibly successful studio in a short three years, becoming one of BC's top 50 employers in 2008 and 2009...

Tetris trade-marks sound good

Posted on January 27, 2009
When you think of some of the most valuable trade-marks in the world, you probably think of marks like MICROSOFT and SONY. You might also think of some logos, such as the EA logo or, for snack breaks, the McDonalds' Golden Arches. But what about the Intel Inside tune, or the Harlem Globetrotters' Sweet Georgia Brown theme, or Nokia's distinctive ring tone? Are these protected under trade-mark law? Unregistered Protection The short answer is that sound marks are protected by the common law if their owners can prove: (a) there is goodwill in the marks (i...

Health Warnings could Become Mandatory for'-- Video Games?

Posted on January 27, 2009
Submitted by Karine Bellavance U.S. Congressman Joe Baca has proposed a piece of legislation entitled the Video Game Health Labeling Act of 2009, which would require that games with an Electronics Software Ratings Board (ESRB) rating of "T" for Teen or higher feature a label stating "WARNING : Excessive exposure to violent video games and other violent media has been linked to aggressive behavior"...

Health Warnings could Become Mandatory for... Video Games?

Posted on January 27, 2009
Submitted by Karine Bellavance U.S. Congressman Joe Baca has proposed a piece of legislation entitled the Video Game Health Labeling Act of 2009, which would require that games with an Electronics Software Ratings Board (ESRB) rating of "T" for Teen or higher feature a label stating "WARNING : Excessive exposure to violent video games and other violent media has been linked to aggressive behavior"...

Tough times in the games industry

Posted on January 26, 2009
Utah video game developer Sensory Sweep probably won't win an ??oeemployer of the year' award this year, at least not if its former employees have any say in the matter. Nearly 200 of the former employees have sued the developer for more than $2 million in unpaid wages, claiming they've been owed the money for more than 100 days...

Sharp Feels Sharp Pain

Posted on December 23, 2008
Submitted by Karine Bellavance It has been reported by PC World that Japan's Fair Trade Commission (the FTC) has slapped Sharp with a fine of over $2.9 million pursuant to Japan's Antimonopoly Act, to be paid by March 19, 2009. An investigation into price-fixing of LCD modules that are used in the Nintendo DS resulted in this fine...

SCRABULOUSO!

Posted on December 18, 2008
Hasbro has apparently dropped its copyright infringement lawsuit against the makers of Scrabulous, RJ Softwares. No explanation for the discontinuance of the proceedings has been given.p p Personally, I think that Scrabulous was the best thing on Facebook!p p Coverage at: GameDaily...

SECOND Wii REMOTE STRAPS LAWSUIT

Posted on December 15, 2008
Shortly after the release of the Wii, Nintendo was sued over weak remote straps that were allegedly unsuitable for normal play because the straps caused the remote to fly out of the player's hand. Nintendo was aware of the issue and offered over 3.2 million replacement straps...

Midway Cleared Of Psi-Ops Copyright Infringement

Posted on December 09, 2008
Midway has been declared the winner in a copyright infringement action brought by William Crawford, a California screenwriter, over Midway's game "Psi-Ops: the Mindgate Conspiracy". Crawford claimed that the game borrowed heavily from his script for a movie called "Psi-Ops' and sought $25M in damages...

UPDATE: THQ v. Activision Settle Baja Dispute

Posted on December 09, 2008
It seems that THQ and Activision have settled their copyright fight over the box art for Activision's "SCORE International Baja 1000". Patent Arcade is reporting that THQ discontinued the lawsuit on November 18, 2008 after Activision agreed to change the cover of its game, which clearly shared some significant similarities with THQ's "Baja: Edge of Control"...

Decrease in Piracy for PSP Software

Posted on December 04, 2008
Submitted by Karine Bellavance Sony Computer Entertainment America's head of hardware marketing, John Koller, has said that although piracy remains a problem for the PlayStation Portable (PSP), it has trended down in recent months. Although it has been reported that sales for the PSP hardware have been doing reasonably well, it has not been the case for the PSP software...

Of Zombies, Malls and IP Law

Posted on December 01, 2008
Can you battle zombies in a mall (or depict such events, anyways) without worrying about infringing on the IP rights of MKR Group, the owners of the "Dawn of the Dead" licenses? Capcom, the company behind the Dead Rising video game, certainly thought so...

F.E.A.R. Not

Posted on November 28, 2008
The Classification Board of Australia has refused to classify F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin FPS, which will prevent it from being sold in Australia. The Board hasn't given an explanation for its refusal, but it likely stems from the fact that the highest rating currently available in Australia is MA15+, and the Board likely concluded that the MA15+ rating was not appropriate for the game...

CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT AGAINST ROCK BAND DRUM PEDALS

Posted on November 28, 2008
Harmonix, MTV, EA and Viacom, the creators of the game Rock Band, are the defendants in a class action lawsuit for having allegedly shipped defective drum pedals in a scheme to cheat consumers. According to plaintiff Monte Morgan from Kansas, the drum pedal has a design defect which causes the pedal to fracture under ordinary usage...

Virtual Infidelity Leads to Real Divorce

Posted on November 26, 2008
Amy Taylor, a 28-yeard old British woman, was shocked and distressed when she walked in on David Pollard, her husband of three years, having sex with another woman. This was not the first time she'd caught him in the act, but it was the final straw. Ms...

Chris Bennett Named a Rising Star by Lexpert

Posted on November 25, 2008
Davis LLP is pleased to announce that Chris Bennett, a partner in the Vancouver office, was selected as one of the Lexpert Rising Stars: Leading Lawyers Under 40 at a gala event in Toronto last night. "Chris Bennett is incredibly deserving of this honour," says Robert Seidel Q...

Patent Troubles for Sony

Posted on November 24, 2008
Submitted by Karine Bellavance Sony has been ordered to pay $18.5 million to Agere Systems following a successful patent infringement lawsuit filed in 2006. Agere Systems alleged that Sony violated its "wireless local area network apparatus" patent. Agere's patent covers the storing of headers in music files on a memory chip...

HUMANS BATTLING ZOMBIES UNPROTECTED

Posted on November 24, 2008
United States Magistrate Judge Richard Seeborg granted Capcom's Motion to Dismiss the lawsuit instituted by The MKR Group, which claimed that Capcom's mall-zombie-game Dead Rising infringed on its Dawn of the Dead IP rights. In dismissing the lawsuit Judge Seeborg reportedly found that "To the extent that Dead Rising may be deemed to posses a theme, it is confined to the killing of zombies in the process of attempting to unlock the cause of the zombie infestation...

GTA ads are back on Chicago Transit

Posted on November 20, 2008
In an earlier posting, we reported that Take Two sued the Chicago Transit Authority after the CTA removed ads for Grand Theft Auto IV. The CTA's actions appear to have been a response to a Fox News reporter's on-air question about why the CTA was carrying the ads...

RETIRED NFL PLAYERS AWARDED $28.1 MILLION

Posted on November 13, 2008
It was reported by the San Francisco Chronicle that a federal jury awarded $28.1 million dollars to over 2000 retired NFL players as the result of a lawsuit against the NFLPA. The players claimed that the NFLPA had not properly compensated them for videogames as well as other merchandise...

ARRIVA! ARRIVA!

Posted on November 11, 2008
Mexico's Procuraduria General de la Republica and Agencia Federal de Investigacion recently seized 20 tons of pirated materials including approximately 91,200 copies of video games, 130,000 video game cover inserts and 3,200 empty video game boxes in a Guadalajara Market...

ECA PARTNERSHIPS WITH WAL-MART, AMAZON AND K2 NETWORK

Posted on November 07, 2008
The Entertainment Consumers' Association (ECA) promotes gamers' rights and wishes to ensure that First Amendment rights are upheld for videogames as they are for other forms of entertainment. The ECA has formed a new retail partnership with Wal-Mart, Amazon and K2 Network in order to promote videogame advocacy...

PETA PRAISING PUBLISHER

Posted on November 06, 2008
Submitted by Karine Bellavance People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is praising publisher Sega for pulling adds it was running on its website to promote its Samba de Amigo game available on Wii. The adds featured a real chimpanzee shaking maracas and reacting to music...

DO VIDEO GAMES MAKE YOU VIOLENT?

Posted on November 04, 2008
Reports came out earlier this week of a study of Japanese and American kids testing whether exposure to violent video games led to more "violent dispositions" (coverage at: GameDaily.com). The study by Dr. Craig A. Anderson of Iowa State University suggested that children who were exposed to violent games tended to be more aggressive...

AUSTRALIA WITHOUT AN R18+ RATING FOR GAMES

Posted on November 03, 2008
Australia is the only developed country without an R18+ rating for games. The Australian public's opinion was polled about the introduction of an R18+ rating for games and a subsequent report was prepared, however, the South-Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson refused to make it public, consequently rendering it null...

THQ sues Activision Over Game Packaging

Posted on October 31, 2008
As first reported by Patent Arcade, THQ has filed suit against Activision Blizzard claiming trade dress and copyright infringement over the box art for Activision's brand new release, "SCORE International Baja 1000". THQ is seeking an injunction against the publisher, alleging that Activision's packaging is identical to that of its own racing game, "Baja Edge of Control", released in September...

REVIVING YEE'S VIDEO GAME LEGISLATION IN CALIFORNIA

Posted on October 28, 2008
This week, a federal appeals court will have to determine whether legislation drafted by Leland Yee for the state of California that had been struck down by the courts should be revived. The original law required that be marked with an '18' label and that their sale and/or rental be prohibited to minors...

ELECTRONIC ARTS SUED OVER "WIN WITH THE REBELS"

Posted on October 22, 2008
The Las-Vegas Review Journal has reported that Electronic Arts is being sued by Gerald Willis for as much as 1.5 million dollars for infringing Willis' copyright over the University of Las Vegas' fight song "Win With the Rebels". Willis is claiming $150,000...

LittleBigPlanet DELAYED OVER RELIGIOUS LYRICS

Posted on October 21, 2008
A Muslim gamer's flagging of a song that contains lyrics from verses of the Koran has resulted in a formal apology from Sony. It is reported that the complaint will result in the delay of the release of LittleBigPlanet to mid-November, in order to allow for the removal of the controversial material...

OBAMA IN BURNOUT

Posted on October 21, 2008
Barack Obama has brought his campaign online. It is reported that nine games, including Burnout, Madden, Nascar and NHL, feature Mr. Obama's in-game ads in the Xbox Live versions of the games. The ads are will continue to run until November 3. Mr. Obama is said to be the first presidential candidate to advertise in a video game...

THE PIRATES OF WAR

Posted on October 21, 2008
Submitted by Karine Bellavance Despite the fact that Gears of War 2 is not coming to PC, it is reported that a forged copy of the game has already been uploaded by various pirate sites for use on modified Xbox 360 systems. Epic Games' Lead Game Designer had stated that the game would not be coming to PC primarily due to piracy concerns...

FACENDA'S FAMILY SUES NFL FILMS

Posted on October 17, 2008
Submitted by Sylvie Lang A U.S. Appeals Court has ruled that the estate of legendary football announcer John Facenda can sue NFL Films for the misuse of his father's voice in a promotional video for an NFL video game. The Appeals Court unanimously held that the use of Facenda's voice, known to football fans as the 'Voice of God' violated Pennsylvania's 'right of publicity' laws...

PROLIFIC PIRATE PLEADS GUILTY

Posted on October 17, 2008
Submitted by Karine Bellavance Gary Boulter, who took part in a major piracy operation in Bristol, plead guilty to 23 offenses relating to the commercial piracy of illegally copied games, films, music and pornography. The Bristol Crown Court sentenced him to 15 months of prison, and he was also ordered to pay 12 000 pounds towards prosecution costs, in addition to a 10 500 pound fine...

NVIDIA SUED

Posted on October 17, 2008
Submitted by Karine Bellavance NVIDIA Corporation is being sued by a New York based law firm for alleged securities fraud. The firm alleges that between November 2007 and July 2008, NVIDIA accumulated important losses, as a result of withholding pertinent information about a high rate of failure for their mobile graphics solutions...

Jim Brown takes on EA and Sony

Posted on August 12, 2008
Former Cleveland Browns player Jim Brown is suing Electronics Arts and Sony for using his image in EA's Madden NFL series without his authorization. Brown takes the position that video games had not yet been invented when he was playing football in the NFL, and he therefore never had the chance to make the decision to sign away the rights to his image to be used in video games...

GTA San Andreas Class Action Decertified

Posted on August 09, 2008
Though Take Two had been nearing settlement with the plaintiffs in a class action who claimed to have been offended by hidden, sexual content in Take Two's GTA San Andreas Game - a.k.a. the Hot Coffee modification - those negotiations have now been derailed with the decertification of the plaintiffs' class action...

Scrabulous removed, but returns under a new name

Posted on August 01, 2008
Facebook users in Canada and the US were blocked from using the extremely popular Scrabulous application earlier this week. Facebook blocked the application pursuant to Hasbro's request, as the company has taken the matter to Court with claims that RJ Softwares and the Agarwalla brothers' game infringes on their Scrabble intellectual property rights...

Merger Complete

Posted on July 29, 2008
Activision and Vivendi Games have officially merged as Activision Blizzard, making Vivendi Games a wholly-owned subsidiary of Activision. The merger is viewed as a new chapter in interactive entertainment, giving Activision Blizzard leading market positions in all categories of the interactive software industry...

Nintendo Controllers Banned After Bid for New Trial Rejected

Posted on July 25, 2008
U.S. District Judge Ron Clark has rejected Nintendo Co's bid for a new trial and forced the company to either post a bond or put royalties in escrow to avoid a ban in the US on some of its controllers. The bid was made by Nintendo in an effort to overturn a May 2008 decision wherein it was held that some of Nintendo's Wii and GameCube Controllers infringed on patents owned by Anascape Ltd...

A Simply Scrabulous Lawsuit

Posted on July 25, 2008
A lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District Court in New York by Hasbro Inc. against the creators of 'Scrabulous'. Although an official version of Scrabble was issued last week by Electronic Arts Inc. for Canadian and American Facebook users, online players have continued to play Scrabulous...

Canadians Doing Their Share to Boost Game Industry

Posted on July 18, 2008
Video game hardware and software sales for the first half of 2008 are up 56 percent in Canada and 53 percent in the US compared to last year. First-half sales were $783 million in Canada and $8.3 billion in the US. These figures (which were provided by NPD Canada) reinforce what many of us have known for a while: the video game industry is huge, and is as significant as any other form of "traditional" entertainment...

Konami sues Viacom over ROCK BAND

Posted on July 18, 2008
According to a Bloomberg report, Konami filed suit in Marshall, Texas, Federal Court on July 9, 2008 against Harmonix Music Systems, its parent company Viacom and Viacom's MTV Networks Co. Konami Corp., the Japanese creator best known for it development of the 'Dance Dance Revolution', 'Karaoke Revolution' and 'Metal Gear Solid' video games, is claiming that Harmonix Studio's 'Rock Band' video game infringes on a number of US patents which it registered in 2002 and 2003...

Bot makers: beware!

Posted on July 17, 2008
In March we reported that Vivendi had sued the author of a software tool that automates certain in-game tasks such as fighting in World of Warcraft. Vivendi claimed that the software tool infringed its copyrights because the tool copies game code into RAM in order to avoid cheat-prevention software, and also violates the game's end-user licence agreement...

NY Passes Video Game Display Bill

Posted on July 16, 2008
The New York State Assembly has passed a bill mandating that all videogames sold in the state of New York display ESRB ratings on their packaging. The bill also requires new consoles to be equipped with controls that would prevent the display of indecent/violent video games...

Is this the End of Jack Thompson?

Posted on July 15, 2008
Jack Thompson, lawyer and anti-video game advocate, is facing permanent disbarment. Judge Tunis, the Referee overseeing Mr. Thompson's disciplinary hearing rejected the recommendation of the Florida Bar Association for a 10-year disbarment for Mr. Thompson...

Court Upholds $21M Patent Infringement Verdict Against Nintendo

Posted on July 15, 2008
The verdict in favour of Anascape Ltd., originally handeded down on May 14, 2008, was upheld by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texax, Lufkin Division, when it denied Nintendo's motion for a reduced verdict. At issue were a series of patents owned by Anascape relating to video game controllers...

Two Gamers File Class Action Lawsuit Against Electronic Arts

Posted on July 15, 2008
The claim alleges that Electronic Arts' exclusive rights agreement with the NFL, NCAA football and the Arena Football League, which grants EA the sole right to publish games featuring the thoe leagues' teams, players and stadiums, amounts to "blatantly anticompetitive conduct"...

Activision Vivendi Merger to Proceed

Posted on July 14, 2008
A Delaware judge denied the preliminary injunction to halt the merger between Activision and Vivendi S.A. that was requested by the Wayne County Employees' Retirement System. The announcement of the $18.9 billion transaction was made last December. Following an approbatory vote of the two companies' shareholders, the merger will be ready to proceed...

File Share Beware - IP ID'd

Posted on July 11, 2008
Submitted by Amanda Alfieri, Articled Student Topware Interactive obtained judgments from a London Court against four individuals for file-sharing . The Court granted interim damages in the amount of £750 per person and the final amount can be up to £2000 per person...

Tecmo's legal woes

Posted on July 11, 2008
Submitted by Tania Da Silva, Articled Student On June 17, 2008, it was reported that two of Tecmo's employees, Team Ninja developers Hiroaki Ozawa and Tatsuki Tsunoda, were filing a class action lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court, on behalf of themselves and 300 other employees, against the company for 8...

Nintendo and Nyko in Nunchuk Fight

Posted on July 03, 2008
Nintendo has sued Nyko Technologies Inc. over its Wii accessory, the wireless Kama Nunchuk. In a suit filed in US District Court in Seattle, Nintendo alleges that Nyko's remote "wholly appropriates the novel shape, design, overall appearance and even the color and materials used in the Nintendo Nunchuk controller...

Music Suit Against Nintendo Suddenly Dropped

Posted on July 03, 2008
GameSpot is reporting that a suit against Nintendo for using unauthorized music in its 2004 commercial for 'Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door' has been dropped. Morgan Creek Productions filed the suit on June 12, 2008 alleging that Nintendo had used the song 'You're So Cool' without permission...

Hot Coffee Just a Tempest in a Teapot?

Posted on July 03, 2008
Who can forget the infamous Hot Coffee episode from a few years ago, when players found hidden (and adult-oriented) content in Take Two's "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas"? Well, except perhaps for video game lawyers, it seems like many people have forgotten...

GTA Movie Situation

Posted on July 03, 2008
There have been a number of movies in recent years based on video game properties (e.g, Hitman, Doom, etc.) Even though Take Two's Grand Theft Auto series of games is wildly popular, however, it's unlikely that there will be a "Grand Theft Auto" movie based on the game...

Minnesota pays ESA $65,000

Posted on July 03, 2008
The Entertainment Software Association recently received $65,000 in fees and expenses from the state of Minnesota, after the state tried and failed to draft enforceable anti-violence video game legislation. The ESA challenged the law in court and won...

Godfather goes to court

Posted on June 20, 2008
Paramount Pictures and Electronic Arts released the Godfather game back in 2006. The estate of Mario Puzo (the author of the original books) has now sued for royalties from the video game. Anthony Puzo, Mario's son, has initiated the lawsuit, which seeks at least $1 million in damages...

EA sued re Madden 2006

Posted on June 19, 2008
In an earlier posting, we reported that the video game industry has seen some huge exclusive agreements, such as EA's exclusive video game rights to the NFL, NCAA football, and ESPN. We noted that there are concerns that exclusive licences like this might diminish the quality of games by reducing the number of competing games (for example, buyers are more likely to buy a football game using real NFL players and teams than one that does not), and that there might be anti-competition concerns with such licences...

XBOX doesn't violate Alcatel-Lucent Patent

Posted on June 09, 2008
Microsoft is no doubt breathing a sigh of relief after a jury ruled that the XBOX 360 didn't violate an Alcatel-Lucent patent for coding video frames. On the other hand, the jury also ruled that Alcatel-Lucent didn't violate a number of Microsoft patents...

Germany becoming even stricter on Violence in Games

Posted on May 20, 2008
Submitted by Dr. Andreas Lober / Carine Neumller, LL.M. Germany has been known for strict legislation regarding violence in games for a long time, but recent changes will make live even harder for games companies. According to the latest changes, media which predominantly contains exceptionally realistic, gruel and lurid images of violence as an end in itself is now indexed, i...

Take Two sues the Chicago Transit Authority

Posted on May 14, 2008
Take Two has sued the Chicago Transit Authority after the CTA removed ads for Grand Theft Auto IV. The CTA's actions appear to have been a response to a Fox News reporter's on-air question about why the CTA was carrying the ads. Coverage here (NBC)...

Take-Two: The Hits Just Keep on Coming

Posted on May 02, 2008
Despite the fact that sales of their flagship franchise are smashing records this week, Take-Two is still embroiled in all kinds of legal troubles. It was recently revealed that another shareholder has filed a class action suit against the Take-Two board for their handling of the EA takeover bid...

"Kölner Dom" in Second Life: Copyright Infringement?

Posted on April 29, 2008
To the inhabitants of Cologne, their "Dom" is very dear and legend says that tourists calling the building "Cathedral" have found themselves thrown into the Rhine. So the judges of the District Court of Cologne will have been very pleased that they have not just rendered what is probably the first German judgement on copyright of Second Life architecture, but that this case refers to the great Cologne landmark...

Minnesota Video Game Law Not Dead

Posted on April 28, 2008
If Minnesota's video game legislation were a Monty Python character, right about now it would be saying "I'm getting better ... I think I'll go for a walk." Which is another way of saying that the legislation, while down, is not dead yet. Back in March, a 3-judge panel of a US Federal Court of Appeal upheld a permanent injunction against the legislation (see our previous post)...

Activision Settles Guitar Hero Suit

Posted on April 28, 2008
Hard to find time to blog, what with the steady torrent of press releases and marketing hype on this GTA IV-eve. Apparently, an ever-growing list of concerned citizens would like to remind you that, unlike Trix, GTA IV is definitely not for kids. In other news, Guitar Hero publisher Activision has reportedly settled a class-action suit brought on behalf of frustrated purchasers of the Wii version of the game, who claimed that the sound was outputting in mono only...

No Bully for Brazil?

Posted on April 23, 2008
A Brazilian court has ordered that sales of Rockstar's "Bully" game be suspended, apparently on the grounds that any virtual violence that takes place in a virtual school setting is not acceptable. Brazil has been in the news for banning YouTube (for a while, at least) because of one particular video...

Arizona game violence law struck

Posted on April 22, 2008
Earlier this month, Arizona passed a new law that would have made game companies responsible for any felony or violence committed by an individual who was being influenced by dangerous or obscene materials including video games. Not surprisingly, the law was recently struck down...

Video Game Trade War?

Posted on April 08, 2008
The governments of Canada and the United Kingdom are engaged in a increasingly heated dispute about the success of the Canadian video game industry. In particular the U.K. government has accused Canadian governments of unfairly subsidizing video game developers through tax credit programs...

Online game ratings in Germany

Posted on April 08, 2008
Germany is known to have some of the strictest rules for youth protection in computer and video games, which have brought the world interesting features such as green blood. Whilst these are a nightmare for the creators of first person shooters especially, online games have been pretty much spared: The law requiring an official rating before the game can be sold without too many restrictions applies to games distributed on storage media only...

Video Game Law Cases and Case Summaries

Posted on April 02, 2008
We've recently updated our chart of video game law cases. It includes brief summaries of many of the key cases dating back to the 1980s. Check it out here. There's also a link in the right margin of our video game law blog's main page.Bookmarks: Delicious, Digg , Facebook, Google, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Yahoo

Sony discloses security breach

Posted on March 28, 2008
Sony has issued a notice to PLAYSTATION Network users that their personal information on the PLAYSTATION Store may have been compromised. The notice warns that some users' passwords may have been changed through unauthorized access, allowing third parties to view the personal information stored on users' accounts...

Legal Battle Joined over WoW Bot

Posted on March 27, 2008
Vivendi, the parent company of Blizzard Entertainment (the creator of the popular World of Warcraft on-line multiplayer game), has sued the author of a software tool that automates certain in-game tasks such as fighting. Vivendi and Blizzard claim that the software tool infringes its copyrights (because the tool copies game code into RAM in order to avoid cheat-prevention software) and also violates the game's end-user licence agreement...

Manhunt 2 Ready for UK Release

Posted on March 25, 2008
Despite being overturned by the High Court on a 'clear error of law', the UK Video Appeals Committee has reconsidered the ban on Manhunt 2 and once again reversed the decision not to give the game Manhunt 2 an 18-rated age certificate. The game was originally slated for 2007, but was refused a certificate by the British Board of Film Classification because of "unremitting bleakness" and "sustained and cumulative casual sadism...

Court Upholds Injunction on Minnesota Violent Game Law

Posted on March 25, 2008
Another Court of Appeal has upheld an injunction against a law banning the sale or rental of violent video games to minors. Once again, the absence of proof of harm was the key factor. However, the 8th Circuit appellate court was less than enthusiastic about the evidentiary hurdle that such a standard implies...

If At First You Don't Succeed...

Posted on March 25, 2008
Sounds like Massachusetts is getting ready to take another crack at banning violent video games, this time by defining violent games as harmful to minors in a manner that mirrors the legal standard for restricting pornography. The Bill reads: 'Matter is harmful to minors if it is obscene or, if taken as a whole, it'-- depicts violence in a manner patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community, so as to appeal predominantly to the morbid interest in violence of minors; is patently contrary to prevailing standards of adults in the county where the offense was committed'-- and lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for minors...

EA Gets Hostile with Take-Two

Posted on March 20, 2008
The stakes have risen in Electronic Art's ('EA') attempt to acquire Take-Two Interactive ('Take-Two'). After having been rebuffed by the management of Take-Two, EA has now shifted its strategy to a so-called 'hostile' take-over bid. The hostile bid basically involves EA making a direct offer to the shareholders of Take-Two...

Guitar Hero Suit Comes, Goes

Posted on March 13, 2008
On March 10 Harmonix Music Systems, Inc., filed a lawsuit against Activision for unpaid royalties relating to "Guitar Hero". Harmonix developed the first two "Guitar Hero" games and the "Rock Band" game, and claimed that Activision owed it more than $14 million in royalties related to "Rock Band III" and related spin-offs because Activision used Harmonix' technology...

Virtual worlds ripe for real-world lawsuits

Posted on March 12, 2008
Today the Financial Post published an interesting article entitled "Virtual Worlds Ripe for Real-World Lawsuits". It discusses topical online legal issues such as IP infringement in Second Life. And it even features a few choice words from one of our resident video game and intellectual property lawyers, Chris Bennett...

Take-Two Shareholders Upset Over EA Rejection

Posted on March 11, 2008
Take-Two is facing some shareholder discontent over its handling of EA's recent $1.9 billion buyout offer. The announcement today that two of the publisher's largest shareholders have cut back their stakes in the company follows news of a shareholder lawsuit for refusing to explore EA's offer...

We're big rock singers and we've got golden fingers...

Posted on March 10, 2008
Dr. Hook would be proud: Davis LLP's Second Life office (and a few of our video game lawyers) just made the cover of the Canadian Lawyer magazine. Check it out here.Bookmarks: Delicious, Digg , Facebook, Google, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Yahoo

Rockstar Sent to the Principal's Office Over 'Bully'

Posted on March 06, 2008
Submitted by Michael Mjanes According to reports in the Globe and Mail, an international coalition of teachers' groups is urging retailers to refuse to sell Rockstars' re-release of Bully. Released as Bully: Scholarship Edition for the Xbox 360 and Wii, the game follows 15-year-old Jimmy Hopkins through his days at a new boarding school...

Jakks Pacific-THQ Grudge Match Set to Go to Arbitration

Posted on March 06, 2008
Submitted by Michael Mjanes The California Court of Appeals has denied a petition by Jakks Pacific Inc. to disqualify potential arbitrators in its ongoing dispute with video game publisher THQ Inc. over royalties. THQ had previously filed an action in the California Superior Court to compel arbitration over the royalty rate owed to Jakks by THQ for WWE video game sales under the THQ/Jakks Pacific joint venture...

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

Posted on February 27, 2008
Submitted by Michael Mjanes 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...

Yarrrrr! Canada Teeming With Online Pirates, Warns ESA.

Posted on February 26, 2008
In its "Special 301 Report", filed with the U.S. Trade Representative, the Entertainment Software Association claims that online piracy is a persistent problem in Canada, China, Malaysia, Russia and other parts of Europe. The ESA urges those nations to bring their copyright and enforcent regimes up to international standards...

Activision Sued by Investors

Posted on February 25, 2008
An interesting legal issue has arisen at Activision Inc. Specifically, Wayne County Employees' Retirement System of Wilmington, Delaware an investor in Activision, is suing the Company for failing to secure the best possible deal in its merger with Vivendi Games...

Capcom Seeks Declaration over 'Dead Rising'

Posted on February 21, 2008
Submitted by Michael Mjanes Fans of zombie movies will undoubtedly recognize this old chestnut: a protagonist, barricaded in a curiously weapon-rich building, surrounded by zombies, must use any and all means available to stay alive. Sound familiar? Could be George A...

UK May Drop European Game Rating System

Posted on February 21, 2008
Submitted by Michael Mjanes According to reports in both the Guardian and MCV, the soon-to-be released Byron Report is likely to recommend that the UK drop the European PEGI ratings system for video games in favour of the BBFC's movie classification system...

'Earth No More' Creates Controversy for 3D Realms

Posted on February 21, 2008
Submitted by Michael Mjanes According to reports, Duke Nukem developer 3D Realms is being sued for copyright infringement over an as-yet-unreleased game entitled 'Earth No More', due out in 2009. The suit was filed by Darin Scott and Edward Polgardy of Cinemagraphix Entertainment, who claim that they shopped a game called 'Earth No More' to a number of companies, including 3D Realms, in 2005...

CBA BarTalk talks about the Davis Video Game Law Blog

Posted on February 16, 2008
BarTalk recently published an article about blawging and had some kind words for our blog. Who wouldn't want to talk about video game lawyers and video game law, you ask? Definitely not the two or three of you in our Facebook fan group... BarTalk coverage here...

Australia thinks Digital Extremes took it to the Digital Extremes

Posted on February 16, 2008
Australia's Office of Film and Literature Classification has banned the sale of Digital Extremes' Dark Sector in Australia. The Office was particularly concerned about the game's 'high-impact violence', which was particularly noticeable in some of the main character's finishing moves...

Square Enix Launches Lawsuit Over Counterfeit Final Fantasy Swords

Posted on February 14, 2008
Square Enix, the Tokyo-based creator of the Final Fantasy franchise, has filed a federal lawsuit for copyright infringement against four wholesalers whom Square Enix claims were selling unlicensed replicas of the swords used in the Final Fantasy games...

Ubisoft Wins Bratz Arbitration

Posted on February 13, 2008
In 2002 Ubisoft signed a deal with MGA Entertainment to publish video games based on the Bratz doll IP. In 2003 MGA tried to terminate the contract on the basis that Ubisoft was not meeting its obligations. Ubisoft refused to re-negotiate, and litigation ensued...

IGE Lawsuit Reveals Some Inner Workings

Posted on February 13, 2008
This is not breaking news, but it's interesting nonetheless. A lawsuit filed last summer shows that one of the founders of the IGE (a virtual property business which lets customers buy and sell virtual property -- in-game currency, characters and items) has sued the other over various business issues...

Who gets the virtual property when the marriage ends?

Posted on February 10, 2008
Business in Vancouver recently ran an interesting article about virtual property and divorce. It includes quotes from one of our Vancouver video game lawyers, Chris Bennett. Article here.Bookmarks: Delicious, Digg , Facebook, Google, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Yahoo

Fins get tough on games?

Posted on February 06, 2008
According to a weekend report from Afterdawn, the Finnish Christian Democratic Party (CDP) is pushing for a new domestic video game inspection regime. The CDP, which holds only 7 of the 200 seats in the Finnish Parliament, is also looking for more accurate and detailed descriptions about possible violence and erotic content in video game packaging...

Roller Coaster Litigation Ends

Posted on February 05, 2008
In 2005 we reported that Roller Coaster Tycoon developer Chris Sawyer had sued Atari for US$5 million in respect of royalties he claimed Atari owed him. Sawyer also claimed that Atari breached a licensing agreement with him by failing to give him access to Atari's accounts between 1999 and 2001...

Sony Abuzz about Trade-mark Suit

Posted on February 05, 2008
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is facing claims of trade-mark infringement from Buzztime Entertainment, a California-based maker of interactive electronic trivia games that are often found in bars and restaurants. According to the suit filed last week in the Southern District of California, SCEE's 'Buzz!' line of quiz games for the PlayStation 2 and its tagline 'It's time to get buzzing" violate several of Buzztime's registered trade-marks...

Silicon Knights Digs for Epic Contract Information

Posted on February 05, 2008
Silicon Knights and Epic Games have been embroiled in a lawsuit over the Unreal Engine 3 for some time now. According to recent reports, Silicon Knights has filed subpoenas on several Unreal Engine 3 licensees in order to see the terms of their confidential licensing contracts with Epic...

Manhunt 2 Still Banned in UK

Posted on February 05, 2008
Despite a successful appeal to the British Video Appeals Committee (see our previous coverage), it appears Rockstar Games is still not able to release the controversial Manhunt 2 in the UK. On January 24, 2008 the High Court ruled overturned the VAC's ruling, telling the committee that it must reconsider its decision because it had committed a "clear error of law" in its approach to the question of harm...

World of Warcraft Lawsuit Moving Forward

Posted on February 05, 2008
The class-action lawsuit against IGE is moving ahead, slowly but surely. That lawsuit, filed on behalf of all World of Warcraft players, alleges that IGE (by gold farming, spamming, etc.) has prevented players from receiving the full benefits they are entitled to as third-party beneficiaries of Blizzard's Terms of USE and End User License Agreement...

Perpetual Entertainment sued by PR Firm over Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising

Posted on February 05, 2008
After announcing that its MMO, Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising, would be put on hold so that it could focus on Star Trek Online, Perpetual Entertainment was sued by its former PR firm, Kohnke Communications. Kohnke claims that Perpetual owes it monies for outstanding invoices, as well as for bonuses Kohnke would have made, depending on the success of Gods and Heroes...

'Hot Coffee' Compensation Announced

Posted on February 05, 2008
Take-Two Interactive ahas nnounced details of its compensation plan for gamers who purchased copies of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas before July 20, 2005 - the version which contains the sexually-explicit 'Hot Coffee' mod. The discovery of the hidden data by modders led to a firestorm of criticism for Take-Two and Rockstar Games, and culminated in a class action in the US...

Stranglehold Ad Banned in UK

Posted on February 05, 2008
The UK Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that a TV ad for Midway's "Stranglehold" cannot be shown on British television because the ad encourages and promotes violence. The decision was prompted by two consumer complaints. The ad had been carefully prepared so that it did not depict bullets hitting anyone (since the game is associated with John Woo and his "bullet ballet" style of action, there's no question that it features plenty of bullets), and had been pre-cleared by the British NGO which approves ads (the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre)...

Leave No Child Inside

Posted on February 01, 2008
New Mexico's 1% excise tax bill HB583 is presently under review by the House Business & Industry Committee. It is reported that, if passed, it will become law on January 1, 2009 and would result in taxes being paid on purchases of video games, consoles and televisions...

'Hot Coffee' Compensation Announced

Posted on January 30, 2008
Take-Two Interactive ahas nnounced details of its compensation plan for gamers who purchased copies of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas before July 20, 2005 - the version which contains the sexually-explicit 'Hot Coffee' mod. The discovery of the hidden data by modders led to a firestorm of criticism for Take-Two and Rockstar Games, and culminated in a class action in the US...

Manhunt 2 Still Banned in UK

Posted on January 30, 2008
Despite a successful appeal to the British Video Appeals Committee (see our previous coverage), it appears Rockstar Games is still not able to release the controversial Manhunt 2 in the UK. On January 24, 2008 the High Court ruled overturned the VAC's ruling, telling the committee that it must reconsider its decision because it had committed a "clear error of law" in its approach to the question of harm...

Sony Abuzz about Trade-mark Suit

Posted on January 30, 2008
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is facing claims of trade-mark infringement from Buzztime Entertainment, a California-based maker of interactive electronic trivia games that are often found in bars and restaurants. According to the suit filed last week in the Southern District of California, SCEE's 'Buzz!' line of quiz games for the PlayStation 2 and its tagline 'It's time to get buzzing" violate several of Buzztime's registered trade-marks...

The 'Terminator' Continues the Battle Against Violent Content

Posted on January 30, 2008
The State of California is the site of an ongoing battleground between free speech advocates and legislators seeking to limit access to violent video games. A law passed by the State Legislature in 2005 that would imposed fines and other sanctions on persons who sold certain video games to minors, was struck down by the a U...

Perpetual Entertainment sued by PR Firm over Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising

Posted on January 29, 2008
After announcing that its MMO, Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising, would be put on hold so that it could focus on Star Trek Online, Perpetual Entertainment was sued by its former PR firm, Kohnke Communications. Kohnke claims that Perpetual owes it monies for outstanding invoices, as well as for bonuses Kohnke would have made, depending on the success of Gods and Heroes...

World of Warcraft Lawsuit Moving Forward

Posted on January 29, 2008
The class-action lawsuit against IGE is moving ahead, slowly but surely. That lawsuit, filed on behalf of all World of Warcraft players, alleges that IGE (by gold farming, spamming, etc.) has prevented players from receiving the full benefits they are entitled to as third-party beneficiaries of Blizzard's Terms of USE and End User License Agreement...

Stranglehold Ad Banned in UK

Posted on January 28, 2008
The UK Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that a TV ad for Midway's "Stranglehold" cannot be shown on British television because the ad encourages and promotes violence. The decision was prompted by two consumer complaints. The ad had been carefully prepared so that it did not depict bullets hitting anyone (since the game is associated with John Woo and his "bullet ballet" style of action, there's no question that it features plenty of bullets), and had been pre-cleared by the British NGO which approves ads (the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre)...

Silicon Knights Digs for Epic Contract Information

Posted on January 28, 2008
Silicon Knights and Epic Games have been embroiled in a lawsuit over the Unreal Engine 3 for some time now. According to recent reports, Silicon Knights has filed subpoenas on several Unreal Engine 3 licensees in order to see the terms of their confidential licensing contracts with Epic...

Tariff 22A Decision and video game music

Posted on January 23, 2008
This is a case summary of RE: SOCAN Statement of Royalties, Internet-Online Music Services, 1996-2006 (Tariff 22.A), (2007) 61 CPR (4th) 353. The Society of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN), the collective society mandated to collect royalties for musical works in Canada, proposed a tariff to the Copyright Board of Canada (the Board) targeting musical works communicated by means of Internet transmission...

Ginko Financial Could Be In Hot Water Again

Posted on January 22, 2008
Following its demise this summer, 'self-styled' virtual bank Ginko Financial was thought to have disappeared into the ether - literally. It appears to have indirectly reared its less than popular head - on eBay no less. According to Ginko's own site, it is selling a '1U Rackmount Xeon 5160 Server' on eBay to the tune of $3200USD...

China to Restrict On-Line Games?

Posted on January 18, 2008
Reported statistics about on-line gaming in China are pretty staggering: there are about 40.2 million on-line gamers, and 2007 on-line game sales exceeded $1.46 billion. The flip side is growing concern about on-line addiction, and the growing trend of blaming much of juvenile crime on on-line gaming obsessions...

XBOX Live Lawsuit Update

Posted on January 17, 2008
We commented last week on the Texas lawsuit against Microsoft which was prompted by the problems XBOX Live experienced over the holiday season (see our previous post). The plaintiffs' lawyer has since spoken about their side of the story, assuring everyone that it is not a money grab and that they are legitimately trying to make Microsoft accountable for collecting money for a service that doesn't work...

India Mulling Video Game Ban?

Posted on January 17, 2008
GamePolitics cites various sources which claim that the Indian government is contemplating legislation banning violent video games. It's not clear what form the ban might take (for example, will legislators look to the various pieces of legislation that have been put forward?)...

GameON Forum - Toronto

Posted on January 16, 2008
Attention all game business people in the Metro Toronto area: The GameON Finance Forum is taking place on January 17 and 18 in Toronto. we're proud to say that Sarah Dale-Harris, one of our very own video game lawyers, will be sitting on a dynamic panel on Friday afternoon to discuss the ever-vexing question of "Do Game Developers Need to Focus More on Tech IP Commercialization?"...

Stalking Charge Linked to On-Line Activities

Posted on January 16, 2008
A 20-year-old man was recently arrested an charged with stalking a 15-year-old-girl. This appears to be another situation where the initial contact between the parties was on-line (in this case apparently through X-Box Live). After making initial contact, the man allegedly then commenced a series of acts of harassment...

Nintendo and Sony Sued for Violating Controller Patents

Posted on January 16, 2008
Nintendo and Sony have been the latest video game manufacturers to be accused of infringing patents in producing video game controllers. Copper Innovations Group has commenced lawsuits in Pennsylvania alleging that Nintendo and Sony infringed a patent Copper filed in January 1996...

WILL YOU BE OUR FRIEND?

Posted on January 16, 2008
Hasbro, the owner of the board game SCRABBLE, has sued Facebook for copyright infringement, claiming that the Scrabulous game on Facebook violates Hasbro's copyright in SCRABBLE. Hasbro is keen to protect its IP in the electronic frontier, especially since Hasbro signed an agreement last year with EA to create electronic versions of its board games including Scrabble...

Second Life Patent and Trade-Mark Office: It was only a matter of time really...

Posted on January 15, 2008
Two brave entrepreneurs have finally ventured into the frontier of virtual intellectual property protection and have opened a 'Second Life Patent and Trademark Office' at www.slpto.com. It was only a matter of time really, so what are the real world implications? In some ways, it is anyone's guess; however, I can't resist being an armchair critic and throw out a few initial thoughts...

Caveat Emptor - Or Not... Linden Labs To Shut Down "Banks" In Second Life

Posted on January 11, 2008
In the wake of the collapse of 'Ginko Financial' in August 2007 and a significant number of Resident complaints that in-world 'banks' are defaulting on their promises, Linden Labs has decided to break with its tradition of not interfering with 'in-world' activities by prohibiting in-world companies from offering interest or any direct return on investments in Second Life...

EA Completes Acquisition of VG Holding Group

Posted on January 08, 2008
In an effort to expand its portfolio and in the hopes of securing a leading competitive position in the RPC, action and adventure genres, Electronic Arts has completed its acquisition of VG Holding Group, bringing BioWare and Pandemic Studios under the EA Games umbrella...

Why do politicians keep proposing anti-violence video game legislation?

Posted on January 07, 2008
It's a good question, especially in the US where the legislation is regularly struck down as being unconstitutional. Maybe the answer, in part, is that some people don't know where to draw the line. For example'-- How about a game where you can shoot down planes before they crash into New York landmarks? The game called 'New York Defender II' has outraged many Americans, as you'll see from these reports on Fox and First Coast News...

Microsoft Faces XBOX Live Lawsuit

Posted on January 07, 2008
Microsoft's XBOX Live network, an on-line system which allows subscribers to access content and play games over the Internet, experienced difficulties over the holiday season due increased demand. Microsoft has acknowledged that the service problems are not acceptable, and has promised that subscribers will be given a free game to make up for the connection difficulties...

Guitar Hero Injunction Denied

Posted on December 19, 2007
A US district court has denied an injunction application that would have stopped the sale of "Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80s". The application was brought by The Romantics, who sued Activision last month on the grounds that the cover version of "What I Like About You" in the game is too similar to the original (see our previous post here)...

Gaming Website Charged with Failing to Protect Minors

Posted on December 18, 2007
An interesting story out of Texas where GamesRadar has been charged by the Texas Attorney General with failing to protect the privacy and safety of children. The charge stemmed from an alleged breach of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act...