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Intellectual Property Law

Video Game Law Blog

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

Post Frequency: 1.5/day

Last Entry: May 07, 2010 at 21:07:00

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...

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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...

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