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Video Game Law Blog
Current issues in video game law.
| 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... [read more]Tuesday, 24 February 2009 | Chris Bennett |
| 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... [read more]Tuesday, 24 February 2009 | Chris Bennett |
| 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... [read more]Friday, 13 February 2009 | Amanda Alfieri |
| 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... [read more]Thursday, 12 February 2009 | Chris Bennett |
| 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... [read more]Monday, 9 February 2009 | Chris Bennett |
| 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... [read more]Wednesday, 4 February 2009 | Chris Bennett |
| 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,... [read more]Tuesday, 27 January 2009 | Chris Bennett |
| 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... [read more]Tuesday, 27 January 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... [read more]Monday, 26 January 2009 | Chris Bennett |
| 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... [read more]Tuesday, 23 December 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.
Personally,... [read more]Thursday, 18 December 2008 | Pablo Guzman |
| 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... [read more]Monday, 15 December 2008 | Amanda Alfieri |
| 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".... [read more]Tuesday, 9 December 2008 | Michael Mjanes |
| 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... [read more]Tuesday, 9 December 2008 | Michael Mjanes |
| 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),... [read more]Thursday, 4 December 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,... [read more]Monday, 1 December 2008 | Tudor Carsten |
| 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... [read more]Friday, 28 November 2008 | Chris Bennett |
| 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... [read more]Friday, 28 November 2008 | Amanda Alfieri |
| 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... [read more]Wednesday, 26 November 2008 | Tudor Carsten |
| 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... [read more]Tuesday, 25 November 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... [read more]Monday, 24 November 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... [read more]Monday, 24 November 2008 | Pablo Guzman |
| 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... [read more]Thursday, 20 November 2008 | Chris Bennett |
| 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... [read more]Thursday, 13 November 2008 | Amanda Alfieri |
| 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... [read more]Tuesday, 11 November 2008 | Pablo Guzman |
| 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... [read more]Friday, 7 November 2008 | Amanda Alfieri |
| 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... [read more]Thursday, 6 November 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)... [read more]Tuesday, 4 November 2008 | Pablo Guzman |
| 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... [read more]Monday, 3 November 2008 | Amanda Alfieri |
| 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... [read more]Friday, 31 October 2008 | Michael Mjanes |
| 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... [read more]Tuesday, 28 October 2008 | Amanda Alfieri |
| 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'... [read more]Wednesday, 22 October 2008 | Amanda Alfieri |
| 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... [read more]Tuesday, 21 October 2008 | Pablo Guzman |
| 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... [read more]Tuesday, 21 October 2008 | Pablo Guzman |
| 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... [read more]Tuesday, 21 October 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... [read more]Friday, 17 October 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,... [read more]Friday, 17 October 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... [read more]Friday, 17 October 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... [read more]Tuesday, 12 August 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... [read more]Saturday, 9 August 2008 | Tudor Carsten |
| 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... [read more]Friday, 1 August 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,... [read more]Tuesday, 29 July 2008 | Josie Morello |
| 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... [read more]Friday, 25 July 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... [read more]Friday, 25 July 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... [read more]Friday, 18 July 2008 | David Spratley |
| 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... [read more]Friday, 18 July 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... [read more]Thursday, 17 July 2008 | Chris Bennett |
| 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... [read more]Wednesday, 16 July 2008 | Josie Morello |
| 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... [read more]Tuesday, 15 July 2008 | Tudor Carsten |
| 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... [read more]Tuesday, 15 July 2008 | Tudor Carsten |
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