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Godfather goes to court

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. He claims that his father and Paramount reached an agreement in 1992 in which Paramount promised his father a "significant share" of revenue from any product incorporating elements of the Godfather saga.

The defendants have been too busy going to the mattresses to comment on the lawsuit.

Coverage at CBC.

EA sued re Madden 2006

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.

We now understand that EA was recently hit with a class-action lawsuit in California and Washington DC for allegedly anticompetitive conduct in respect of Madden 2006. The plaintiffs claim that EA significantly raised the price of the game after signing an exclusive deal with the NFL which prevented other game companies from getting NFL licences for their games.

Coverage here: http://tinyurl.com/65vzyn (East Bay Business Times)

XBOX doesn't violate Alcatel-Lucent Patent

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.

Patent infringement cases are becoming increasingly common in the video game industry. Many developers resent the trend, but the reality is that many developers and publishers are turning to patents to protect their inventions. This is requiring all developers and publishers to consider patent searches for many aspects of their games--especially in light of the fact that patents now cover many elements of gameplay or game development which are widely used in the industry.

More on the Microsoft/Alcatel-Lucent case (Seattle PI).