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Sharp Feels Sharp Pain

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. It has also been reported that a cease-and-desist notice has been sent by the FTC to Sharp in relation to LCD modules sold to Nintendo from January to March 2007, for the DS Lite.

However, it is reported that Sharp denies having maliciously violated Japan's Antimonopoly Act, stating the following: "We understand there is no precedent in Japan that a cartel in violation of Antimonopoly Act was found for a specific product which was sold to one private company for use of a single product model".

Coverage at GameDaily.com>GameDaily.com

SCRABULOUSO!

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.

Personally, I think that Scrabulous was the best thing on Facebook!

Coverage at: GameDaily.com

SECOND Wii REMOTE STRAPS LAWSUIT

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.

The new lawsuit alleges that Nintendo has not taken sufficient measures to review the straps and that it has not disclosed any incidents to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Coverage at: GameDaily

Midway Cleared Of Psi-Ops Copyright Infringement

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.

According to Crawford both of the works shared similar plot devices, characters and (obviously) naming. However, the federal court judge held that the similarities were not "protectable" under the Copyright Act and that "no reasonable juror” would find that that the two works were "substantially similar in the expression of their ideas.”

Coverage is available at kotaku.com and 1up.com.

UPDATE: THQ v. Activision Settle Baja Dispute

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".

Patent Arcade has a copy of the new box art here.

Original post is available here.

Decrease in Piracy for PSP Software

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. Sony has claimed that PSP games rarely make it to into The NPD Group's monthly top 10 software charts because of piracy issues. It is also possible that consumers are interested in the PSP hardware for its other multimedia functionality.

Direct downloads from the PlayStation Store, which have recently been introduced, may also contribute to decreasing piracy. While Koller has noted that Sony has been monitoring video game message boards, he has stated the following: ??oeThere's certainly people that are standing up and fighting for what we consider the good side, the rights of developers and publishers to make money on their IP. And then there's certainly the other side that believes that they can take as warranted. Its kind of been nice to see other consumers going and help and fight the battle for us”.

Coverage at GameDaily.com

Of Zombies, Malls and IP Law

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. In fact, Capcomp brought a motion to block any lawsuit on the issue. MKR Group was not deterred, however, and started a lawsuit a couple of weeks later.

That lawsuit has now been dismissed, and Capcom's motion has been granted.

The decision of United States Magistrate Judge Richard Seeborg was informed by his finding that "humans battling zombies in a mall during a zombie outbreak" is not a protectable concept. His Honour also found that the undercurrent of anti-consumerism and other social commentary in Dawn of the Dead was "totally absent" from Dead Rising.

There you have it.

Coverage at: GameDaily