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Video Game Law Blog - 2005
Current issues in video game law.
| This is a December 21, 2005 decision of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose division, granting a preliminary injunction against the enforcement of the California [read more]Saturday, 31 December 2005 | Dani Lemon |
| In an earlier posting , we mentioned the ESA's compilation of studies which suggest that video games don't lead to real world violence.
Now, here's an editorial from a video [read more]Thursday, 29 December 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Maybe it was all that holiday eggnog that did it. Who knows? But the kind folks at Blawg Review declared our Video Game Law Blog the 'judges' choice for Speciality Blawgs"? [read more]Thursday, 29 December 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| The US District Court for the Northern District of California has granted a preliminary injunction stopping the implementation of California's new video game law. The Court stated that video [read more]Friday, 23 December 2005 | David Spratley |
| We reported several months ago (see post ) about how Blizzard was scanning the hard drives of World of Warcraft players, trying to prevent hacking and cheating. Blizzard is obviously keeping [read more]Friday, 23 December 2005 | David Spratley |
| A detailed article on www.eahockey.com (which is not an official EA web site) describes a licensing tangle involving EA, the NHL, the NHL Players' Association, and Take-Two Interactive. Shortly [read more]Wednesday, 21 December 2005 | David Spratley |
| A recent article in the journalNaturediscusses a cancer-causing gene that called the POK erythroid myeloid ontogenic gene. The article refers to the gene as Pokemon (understandable when you [read more]Monday, 19 December 2005 | David Spratley |
| TThe lawsuit against Take-Two brought by the families of police personnel murdered by a GTA-playing teen will continue to trial. An Alabama judge has dismissed Take-Two's motion to dismiss [read more]Friday, 16 December 2005 | David Spratley |
| A year ago Marvel sued NCsoft Corp. and Cryptic Studios Inc. over "City of Heroes", claiming that the game's character customization function allowed players to create superheroes that [read more]Thursday, 15 December 2005 | David Spratley |
| As previously reported (see here ), EA has entered into an agreement to acquire mobile gaming provider Jamdat for an estimated US $680 million. However, a Jamdat shareholder is suing to [read more]Tuesday, 13 December 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Jack Thompson, the notorious anti-video game lawyer, claims that a 16-year old boy has been arrested for making threatening and harassing phone calls to Thompson. Thompson implies that the threats [read more]Tuesday, 13 December 2005 | David Spratley |
| Just when you thought monolithic publishing emperor EA couldn't get any bigger, it goes and purchases mobile gaming company Jamdat for a reported $680 million, or USD $27 per share. Jamdat [read more]Friday, 9 December 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| When Acclaim Games went belly-up in September 2004, it left scads of vaunted intellectual property like 'The Adventures of Mary Kate& Ashley"? in legal limbo. Howard Marks, a former [read more]Friday, 9 December 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Vivendi Universal Games, the holder of the rights to the King's Quest games (which were created by Sierra in the 1980s), has allegedly granted a 'fan license"? to Phoenix Online Studios [read more]Friday, 9 December 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Renowned skateboarder Alan 'Ollie"? Gelfand (the guy who invented the 'Ollie"? skateboard move in 1976) has sued Disney, Sega and others for more than $20million, claiming the companies [read more]Thursday, 8 December 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| The trustee for the bankrupt publisher Acclaim Entertainment, Allan B. Mendelsohn, has put the rights to more than 200 video game titles up for auction in Oceanside, New York. Famous titles [read more]Wednesday, 7 December 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios has announced that it has acquired developer Guerrilla Games from its parent, Media Republic. Guerrilla Games, known for its creatively-named Playstation [read more]Wednesday, 7 December 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| As reported in an earlier posting , U.S. District Court Judge Kennelly has ruled that the proposed Illinois law, which sought to ban the sale of violent or sexual video games to minors, is unconstitutional [read more]Wednesday, 7 December 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| A Chicago man is suing Microsoft over an alleged design flaw that causes his new 360 to overheat and freeze. (In case that seems oxymoronic, it means the console gets too hot and causes games [read more]Monday, 5 December 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| The US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois has just declared Illinois' Violent Video Game Law and Sexually Explicit Video Game Law unconstitutional.
The Violent Video [read more]Friday, 2 December 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| A game developer has sued EA, claiming EA incorporated some of his ideas into Madden 2006. The developer met with EA in 2003 and disclosed an idea for a football game where the gamer develops [read more]Friday, 2 December 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| This is a December 2, 2005 decision of the U.S. District Court, District of Illinois, Eastern Division, granting a permanent injunction against the implementation by the Illinois state government [read more]Friday, 2 December 2005 | Dani Lemon |
| Someone has been vandalizing buildings in San Francisco, New York, L.A. and Chicago with similar images of characters playing with their PSPs. There's speculation that Sony is supporting [read more]Thursday, 1 December 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| The heat has suddenly been turned up with respect to video game legislation in the United States Senators Hilary Clinton and Joe Lieberman have written a federal bill (the "Family Entertainment [read more]Wednesday, 30 November 2005 | David Spratley |
| The US Patents and Trademarks Office granted Nintendo a new patent earlier this month US Patent No. 6,955,606, with the catchy title 'Game information storage medium and game system using the [read more]Tuesday, 29 November 2005 | David Spratley |
| Sony has announced that its next-generation Playstation 3 will contain controls which allow parents to restrict their children's access to video games or movies with certain ratings, and to control [read more]Tuesday, 29 November 2005 | David Spratley |
| The internet is rife with rumours that xbox 360s are overheating, and xbox 360 games are freezing. Currently, the word is that the 360's brick-sized power supply units may be to blame the [read more]Monday, 28 November 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| David Allison runs cheatcc.com, a site dedicated to posting cheat codes for video games. He recently sued a competitor, Crave Online Media, for copying his postings and replicating them on their [read more]Monday, 28 November 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| We reported earlier this year ( here and here ) about a patent lawsuit between Yahoo! and Xfire concerning instant messaging technology. Xfire had a summary judgment motion scheduled for December [read more]Friday, 25 November 2005 | David Spratley |
| Back in 1997, game publisher Running With Scissors released a PC game called 'Postal"?, a violent shoot-em-up featuring a postal worker on a rampage. Unsurprisingly, Postal caused controversy [read more]Friday, 25 November 2005 | David Spratley |
| Earlier in November, Florida attorney Jack Thompson attempted to withdraw as counsel from an Alabama civil suit against members of the gaming industry. However, judge James Moore has rejected [read more]Wednesday, 23 November 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Parents of a 13 year-old boy have sued Blizzard Entertainment, claiming that World of Warcraft caused the boy to jump to his death from a 24 story building. The parents are also planning to turn this [read more]Sunday, 20 November 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| No, not on the streets, but in their video games! Proposed amendments to Germany's child protection laws could serve to ban any game which depicts lethal violence. Following trends [read more]Friday, 18 November 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| We just published an article in theLawyers Weeklyregarding unexpected potential liability in the online gaming world.
Here's the link http://www.shorl.com/gorufebradrome [read more]Thursday, 17 November 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Eidos Interactive announced recently that its soon-to-be-released shooter 'Roll Call"? is being re-named 'Zero Tolerance City Under Fire"?. This move did not sit well with Randel [read more]Wednesday, 16 November 2005 | David Spratley |
| In an earlier posting , we reported that Michigan's violent game legislation had been temporarily suspended after the US District Court granted an injunction preventing the legislation from taking [read more]Wednesday, 16 November 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| This is a completely gratuitous posting. It has nothing to do with video game law. It also has nothing to do with our Star Wars vs. Star Trek category (even though the postings in that [read more]Friday, 11 November 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| The case involved a dispute between a video game developer and a group of publishers and distributors. The Plaintiffs are the publishers; the Defendant is the developer.
The Defendant claimed [read more]Friday, 11 November 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Sony agreed to settle its 'disc read error"? lawsuit by paying affected gamers US$25 (which is CDN$31"? wooo-hoo!), giving them a free game from a specified list, and by repairing or [read more]Thursday, 10 November 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Michigan's legislation (which bans the sale of video games to minors) has suffered a setback. The US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan has granted a preliminary injunction [read more]Thursday, 10 November 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| DogTag developer, KaosKontrol, has terminated its publishing agreement with Digital Jesters and is trying to wind-up Digital Jesters (i.e., shut it down). This follows yesterday's allegations [read more]Wednesday, 9 November 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Roller Coaster Tycoon developer Chris Sawyer has sued Atari for US$5 million in respect of royalties he claims to be owed by Atari. Sawyer also claims Atari failed to give him access to Atari's [read more]Wednesday, 9 November 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| (This is an archived case summary.)
This November 9, 2005 decision of the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan, Southern Division, grants a preliminary injunction that prevents the [read more]Wednesday, 9 November 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| This decision of the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan, Southern Division, grants a preliminary injunction that prevents the Michigan state government from enforcing Michigan Public [read more]Wednesday, 9 November 2005 | Dani Lemon |
| At least two three developers (Frogwares, Cyanide and Nadeo) and one publisher (Focus Home Interactive) have publicly claimed that UK publisher Digital Jesters have engaged in 'highly suspicious"? [read more]Monday, 7 November 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Ifinium Labs, which trades on the over-the-counter market, is in the midst of one of its biggest challenges to date. Infinium's Chairman Timothy Roberts, who resigned from the posts [read more]Friday, 4 November 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| The US patent office recently granted a US patent (#6,932,341) for a 'video game system auxiliary cover system"?. The system allows gamers to change the appearance of their consoles [read more]Thursday, 3 November 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| The province of New Brunswick is expected to introduce legislation which will require retailers to place ratings on all video games which are available for sale or rental in the province. The [read more]Wednesday, 2 November 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| EA Japan has decided to stop supporting Star Wars Galaxies in Japan. Gamers in Japan can apparently transfer their accounts to other servers; however, the shut-down still raises an interesting [read more]Tuesday, 1 November 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Florida now has a draft bill to ban the sale and rental of violent video games to minors. The bill is very similar to the recently-passed California legislation.
Coverage at http://www [read more]Friday, 28 October 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| KQIX, the unofficial ninth sequel to the King's Quest series was recently shut down after developers received a demand letter from Vivendi Universal Inc.
The legality of unofficial sequels [read more]Wednesday, 26 October 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| The ESA has released a compilation of studies which suggest that video games don't lead to real world violence. Not surprisingly, the ESA didn't mention any of the studies that came to [read more]Tuesday, 25 October 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Leland Yee, who wrote and sponsored California's new bill prohibiting the sale of violent video games to children, and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who recently signed the bill into law, have [read more]Wednesday, 19 October 2005 | David Spratley |
| As expected, the Video Software Dealers Association and the Entertainment Software Association have started a lawsuit challenging California's new game legislation. The bill, which comes [read more]Tuesday, 18 October 2005 | David Spratley |
| In an earlier posting , we mentioned studies which concluded that violent video games (a) incite violence in youths and (b) have absolutely no effect on youths. A new study from Michigan State [read more]Tuesday, 18 October 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Director Steven Spielberg, who has directed such movies asET,JawsandSaving Private Ryan, has agreed to develop three video with for EA. This move demonstrates again the increasing ties between [read more]Friday, 14 October 2005 | David Spratley |
| In an earlier post we reported that Microsoft was awarded a temporary injunction preventing a former Microsoft executive (named Kai-Fu Lee) from working for Google on certain products and services [read more]Friday, 14 October 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| No, not the 16thcentury explorer. Dashiell Ponce de Leon of Richmond, Texas has been convicted of criminal copyright infringement by the US District Court of the District of Columbia, for selling [read more]Thursday, 13 October 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Reports from Germany are that 10 Xbox 360 development kits have been stolen from a German warehouse. The kits, which are used by game developers to create software for the next-generation platform, [read more]Thursday, 13 October 2005 | David Spratley |
| Microsoft and RealNetworks have settled their antitrust dispute (to the tune of US $761 million moving from Microsoft to RealNetworks) and have created a new partnership to innovate and promote consumer [read more]Tuesday, 11 October 2005 | David Spratley |
| Sounds like somebody smells an opportunity last week we reported that EA settled an employee lawsuit in California for $15.6 million. Gamepolitics.com is reporting that another employee [read more]Tuesday, 11 October 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger has approved California's legislation banning the sale and rental of violent video games to anyone under the age of 18. The legislationalso requires a label [read more]Sunday, 9 October 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| A recent lawsuit filed against Rockstar and Take Two in Illinois has been transferred to US District Court because of the Class Action Fairness Act, which requires that claims seeking more than $5 [read more]Friday, 7 October 2005 | David Spratley |
| The High Court of Australia has allowed Mr. Eddy Stevens' appeal of an Australian Full Court decision, which ruled that mod chips sold by Mr. Stevens in Australia were illegal because they [read more]Thursday, 6 October 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Looks like the giant woke up. As previously reported, Spark Unlimited launched a lawsuit against Activision, alleging that Activisionfailed to pay promised royalties for the first title developed [read more]Thursday, 6 October 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| If all goes according to plan, on October 22ndAmerican gamers will finally be able to get their hands on Tiger Telematics' handheld gaming system, 'Gizmondo,"? which launched in [read more]Thursday, 6 October 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| In July 2004, a group of Electronic Arts employees sued EA for overtime wages. Under California law, some employees in high-tech jobs are not entitled to overtime pay. The EA employees in [read more]Wednesday, 5 October 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| This isn't exactly a video game law story, but it's close enough. The reason we're reporting it is because it provides a great laundry list for counsel who are drafting counterstatements [read more]Monday, 3 October 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Earlier this week, Microsoft and Intel declared their support for the HD-DVD format for next-generation DVDs (see earlier post ). Dell and HP have now reiterated their support for the competing [read more]Friday, 30 September 2005 | David Spratley |
| Sony has issued another patch for the PSP, this time to fix a bug that allows hackers to crack the PSP and run their own apps on it. Sony isn't currently setting its lawyers loose on PSP [read more]Friday, 30 September 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| ..but the Gizmondo is still not on North American retail shelves.
Tiger Telematics Inc. has announced its intention to become a public company by seeking a listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange. The [read more]Thursday, 29 September 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Earlier this year Adrian Carmack, one of the founders of id Software (but no relation to co-founder John Carmack), left the company, and it was presumed that he had retired voluntarily. That [read more]Wednesday, 28 September 2005 | David Spratley |
| There are apparently several online hunting websites in the US which allow users to remotely target and shoot various weapons (including rifles, bows, blades and harpoons) at caged animals. In [read more]Wednesday, 28 September 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Here's an perspective on game legislation from Dennis McCauley, the editor of GamePolitics.com. In his view, "It is no longer sufficient for the industry to sit quietly back, ignoring [read more]Wednesday, 28 September 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Tech giants Microsoft and Intel have picked sides in the battle over the standard format for next-generation DVDs. Both companies have sided with Toshiba's HD-DVD format in preference over [read more]Tuesday, 27 September 2005 | David Spratley |
| Earlier this month, Blizzard added a new dungeon (Zul'Gurub) to World of Warcraft. Dwelling in the dungeon is a monster called Hakkar, who has the ability to infect players with a virus called [read more]Monday, 26 September 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| We reported a while ago about a grandmother in New York who sued Rockstar Games and Take Two Interactive Software Inc. over the hidden sexual content in GTA San Andreas. A similar class action [read more]Wednesday, 21 September 2005 | David Spratley |
| You may recall that Japanese prefecture Kanagawa labelled GTA III as 'harmful"?, such that it could not be sold or rented to minors (see previous post ). Another Japanese prefecture, [read more]Wednesday, 21 September 2005 | David Spratley |
| In an earlier posting we reported that an anonymous teenager had won a temporary injunction against Topheavy for including topless footage of her in The Guy Game. She had been videotaped while competing [read more]Wednesday, 21 September 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| There are reports that Glud and Marstrand, a Scandinavian packaging company, has sued Microsoft for breaching non-disclosure agreements and misappropriating confidential information.
G&M [read more]Friday, 16 September 2005 | David Spratley |
| The Entertainment Software Association has announced that the owner of the Pandora's Cube chain has been sentenced to 5 months in prison and three years of supervised release (including 5 months [read more]Friday, 16 September 2005 | David Spratley |
| Or should I say, launch dates? Though originally it was at least heavily implied that Xbox 360 would launch in North America, Europe, and Japan on the same date, that's now the same [read more]Thursday, 15 September 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| The Entertainment Software Association has come out swinging against Michigan's new video game legislation, announcing that it will bring a lawsuit challenging that law's constitutionality [read more]Wednesday, 14 September 2005 | David Spratley |
| Microsoft just won a temporary injunction preventing a former Microsoft executive (named Kai-Fu Lee) from working for Google on certain products and services. Mr. Lee was previously the 'face [read more]Tuesday, 13 September 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| The ESRB is trying to clean up the mess that resulted from the Hot Coffee incident. The ESRB has sent a strongly-worded email to US publishers requiring a full audit of all titles released in [read more]Tuesday, 13 September 2005 | David Spratley |
| Tiger Telematics Inc., whose subsidiary and main business enterprise is Gizmondo Europe (the maker of the handheld Gizmondo game console) has put one lawsuit to rest and started another.
In 2004, [read more]Tuesday, 13 September 2005 | David Spratley |
| Earlier this year we reported that Microsoft had recalled more than 14 million XBOX power cables because they were a potential smoke or fire hazard. Now Sony has issued a similar recall for certain [read more]Tuesday, 13 September 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| North Carolina's proposed legislation to criminalize the sale of violent video games to minors has died in committee. Apparently North Carolina's legislators plan to give it a go again [read more]Monday, 12 September 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Michigan has now passed legislation which (a) requires retailers to display game rating info, and (b) restricts the sale of sexually explicit games to minors. Additional legislation will likely [read more]Monday, 12 September 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| In an earlier posting we discussed California's efforts to protect the Girl Scouts by passing legislation to ban the sale of violent video games to kids. The quote of the day came from Assemblyman [read more]Friday, 9 September 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Earlier this week, the SEC approved the merger of EB Games and Gamestop, which leaves final approval in the hands of shareholders of both companies, to be determined at a simultaneous annual meeting [read more]Friday, 9 September 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| We reported last month about a dispute between developer Perception and publisher JoWood over the development of a Stargate SG-1 game. JoWood terminated Perception's development agreement, [read more]Wednesday, 7 September 2005 | David Spratley |
| Earlier this summer we reported about the sale of Acclaim's assets as part of Acclaim's bankruptcy proceedings. Now Acclaim's trustee is trying to dig up more assets. The trustee [read more]Monday, 5 September 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Michigan's House of Representatives has passed two bills to help enforce video game content ratings. Bills 416 and 464 would impose fines on people who sell or rent violent or sexually [read more]Friday, 2 September 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Last year we reported that Blizzard Entertainment had won its lawsuit against Internet Gateway Inc. and various individuals who reverse engineered Blizzard's software and protocols to create the [read more]Friday, 2 September 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Here's a further update about Nintendo's 'insanity patent' . Another reader brought to our attention the fact that the 'Call of Cthulu"? paper-based RPG, which has been [read more]Thursday, 1 September 2005 | David Spratley |
| Thanks to one of our readers, who followed up on our recent 'insanity patent"? post to point out that Nintendo's 'Eternal Darkness Sanity's Requiem"? used an in-game sanity [read more]Thursday, 1 September 2005 | David Spratley |
| Several of our readers have noticed that our 'comment"? feature is disabled. A recent US lawsuit shows that this is not necessarily a bad thing a blog operator has been sued for comments [read more]Wednesday, 31 August 2005 | David Spratley |
| In April 2003, Spark Unlimited announced that it and Activision Inc. had entered into an exclusive publishing deal pursuant to which Activision would publish three console games developed by Spark [read more]Tuesday, 30 August 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| An astute Slashdot contributor has called attention to US patent no. 6,935,954, which issued August 30, 2005. The patent, owned by Nintendo, is titled 'Sanity system for video game"? a [read more]Tuesday, 30 August 2005 | David Spratley |
| Namco sued Sony for copyright infringement after one of Sony BMG's recording artists (Lil' Flip) included samples from the Pac Man video game in his 'Game Over"? song. The parties [read more]Monday, 29 August 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Earlier this year, Japanese toy company Bandai and game publisher Namco announced that they will join forces and create a holding company called Namco Bandai Holdings Inc. The companies have [read more]Friday, 26 August 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| We're pleased to report that our game-savviness (is that a word?) has now been independently verified by the video game media. The proof is on GamePolitics , the blog 'where politics [read more]Wednesday, 24 August 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| A Utah man has been arrested for buying video games and then returning the boxes (re-shrinkwrapped) with blank CDs inside. He would then sell the game CDs on eBay. Authorities say that the [read more]Tuesday, 23 August 2005 | David Spratley |
| Vili the Warrior, a mascot for the University of Hawaii, has sued EA for $75,000. He claims that EA used his character without permission on NCAA Football '06.
Lawsuits such as this [read more]Friday, 19 August 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| We're all aware that people sometimes get mugged for their flashy possessions "? an iPod, say, or an expensive pair of shoes. This sad trend has now made its way into the virtual world [read more]Friday, 19 August 2005 | David Spratley |
| Need to promote or condemn video game legislation? Here's the easy solution pick a study.
Thereare now studies which support both arguments. Video games encourage people to [read more]Friday, 19 August 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| One of our readers asked for an update on the Burke v. Microsoft case. For those of you who don't know about the case, Sean Burke is the gamer who sued Microsoft in October 2004 because his [read more]Wednesday, 17 August 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Blizzard Entertainment is receiving flack from some players for scanning players' computers for illegal cheats and hacks relating to the massively multiplayer online game World of Warcraft. Some [read more]Monday, 15 August 2005 | David Spratley |
| Video game lawyers around the world are no doubt on stand-by now that Australian developer Perception has accused publisher JoWood of libel. JoWood terminated Perception's development agreement [read more]Friday, 12 August 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| An Alabama jury recently convicted Devin Moore of capital murder. In his defence, the 20 year-old partly blamed his actions on GTA. The jury didn't buy it.
As you might expect, [read more]Thursday, 11 August 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Microsoft will require 3rd-party accessory manufacturers to obtain a license to make their products function with the upcoming Xbox 360 console, and will enforce this requirement with a security mechanism [read more]Wednesday, 10 August 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| CBC reports that a 28-year-old South Korean man has died after gaming almost continually for 50 hours. South Korean officials say that the man (who apparently quit his job in order to have more [read more]Tuesday, 9 August 2005 | David Spratley |
| Sony has started another lawsuit against an on-line retailer who is selling PSPs in the UK. This time Sony has its sights set on Lik-Sang.com, a well-known Hong Kong video game retailer. Sony [read more]Tuesday, 9 August 2005 | David Spratley |
| Sony has apparently reduced its damages claims against at least one PSP importer from UKP1,000 to UKP500. No word on Sony's reasons for the compromise, especially considering Sony's recent [read more]Monday, 8 August 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| In an earlier post , we reported that a wildlife photographer had sued various companies (including a coin-op game distributor and a software distributor) for copyright infringement. The photographer [read more]Sunday, 7 August 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| The Chinese government has issued several new regulations relating to the on-line gaming industry. Chief among these is a new policy that prohibits minors (under 18) from playing on-line games [read more]Thursday, 4 August 2005 | David Spratley |
| As you know, Rockstar has received a lot of publicity lately regarding the hot coffee fiasco . Some critics say that any publicity is good publicity. Rockstar seems to buy that because they're [read more]Thursday, 4 August 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| The Criminal Code of Canada includes an offence of “counselling”. If you “counsel” someone to commit an offence, you can be convicted regardless of whether the offence is committed [read more]Wednesday, 3 August 2005 | David Spratley |
| Sony recently won round two in its battle with Frosty Treats Inc.
Frosty Treats is one of the largest ice cream vendors in the US. Its trucks are covered with pictures of the various [read more]Wednesday, 3 August 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Hitesh Patel, a 31-year-old employee of Washington DC-based game retailer Pandora's Cube, has been sentenced to 8 months for selling 'Super Xboxes,"? which are Xboxes modified with larger [read more]Thursday, 28 July 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| It was only a matter of time. An 85-year-old New York woman has filed a lawsuit against Rockstar Games and Take Two Interactive Software Inc., claiming that they engaged in false, misleading [read more]Wednesday, 27 July 2005 | David Spratley |
| Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has finally signed the Safe Games Illinois Act into force. Illinois will now limit the sale and rental of games with 'violent and sexually explicit"? [read more]Tuesday, 26 July 2005 | David Spratley |
| Rockstar Games, and its parent Take-Two Interactive, are under investigation by the feds. The US House of Representatives has voted 355 to 21 to support a Federal Trade Commission inquiry into [read more]Tuesday, 26 July 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Massive Inc., a New York-based company which places ads in video games, has developed technology that downloads full-motion video ads from the internet and inserts them automatically into a certain [read more]Monday, 25 July 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Jack Thompson, the outspoken American lawyer who has many things to say about video games, is turning his sights from Hot Coffee-gate to another game which is so ripe with depravity that even GTA [read more]Friday, 22 July 2005 | David Spratley |
| A Florida attorney has filed a lawsuit and sought an injunction to prohibit retailers such as Best Buy and Walmart from selling GTA San Andreas to minors, in light of the hot coffee scandal. Who [read more]Thursday, 21 July 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| We described in a post last month how Sony is cracking down on retailers who are selling imported PSPs in the UK. As part of this campaign, Sony recently obtained an injunction preventing [read more]Thursday, 21 July 2005 | David Spratley |
| Take Two has now admitted that the 'hot coffee"? sex scenes in GTA San Andreas were created by Rockstar, not a modder. And the ESRB has changed the game's rating from M to AO. Rockstar is working [read more]Wednesday, 20 July 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Acclaim Entertainment has been liquidating its assets since it filed for bankruptcy in September. Its trustee has now negotiated an agreement to sell the 'ACCLAIM ENTERTAINMENT"? name [read more]Wednesday, 20 July 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Biggs, a wildlife photographer in Fort Worth, Texas, sued Bass Pro Outdoor World LLC, Incredible Technologies Inc., and Play Mechanix Inc., for copyright infringement, claiming the defendants had [read more]Wednesday, 20 July 2005 | Dani Lemon |
| Biggs, a wildlife photographer in Fort Worth, Texas, sued various companies, including a coin-operated game distributor and a software distributor, for copyright infringement. Biggs claimed [read more]Wednesday, 20 July 2005 | Dani Lemon |
| Amid concerns over recent video-game related violent incidents in Japan, the Japanese gaming industry is rolling out a video game ratings system. The system asks retailers to not sell over-18 [read more]Wednesday, 20 July 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Here's an article about summer camps that use video games to inspire learning. There's nothing new about computer camps, but this one is obviously special. Here's what 14 year-old [read more]Tuesday, 19 July 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Several law firms have filed class action lawsuits against Majesco Entertainment Company. The complaints--which were filed on behalf of investors who purchased the publicly traded securities [read more]Tuesday, 19 July 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| The end of June brought sad news for the peer-to-peer (p2p) community, with the US Supreme Court finally deciding MGM v. Grokster. The decision, which holds p2p company Grokster liable for the [read more]Tuesday, 19 July 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| A 22-year old man was recently charged in the UK for modifying and selling Xboxes. The modification of video game consoles is illegal in the UK due to its adoption of the EU Copyright Directive [read more]Tuesday, 19 July 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| In an earlier posting we discussed the recent 'hot coffee"? controversy surrounding GTA San Andreas.
Gamespot has done its own investigating and questioned Rockstar's allegations [read more]Monday, 18 July 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Microsoft has joined forces with Marvel Enterprises to develop a massively multiplayer online game featuring Marvel's cast of superheroes (which includes Spider-Man, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four [read more]Friday, 15 July 2005 | David Spratley |
| We all know that GTA is a fairly violent game. And the main character (CJ) can already have sex in the game (although you don't see any of it). That's why the game is rated M.
But [read more]Thursday, 14 July 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| It may be a dubious honour, but Eidos' '25 to Life"? may have caught up to GTA as the target of choice for concerned lawmakers before it even hits store shelves. A New York Senator [read more]Wednesday, 13 July 2005 | David Spratley |
| Video game company Hip Interactive is now under court receivership. The Ontario Court Superior Court of Justice appointed Ernst& Young as interim receivers. According to reports, [read more]Tuesday, 12 July 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Biggs, a wildlife photographer, sued various companies (including a coin-op game distributor and a software distributor) for copyright infringement. Biggs claimed that the companies had infringed [read more]Sunday, 10 July 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Steve Neal is an African American male and former football player for Western Michigan University. He's also a Caucasian player for the New England Patriots.
Oh alright, they're two different [read more]Thursday, 7 July 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| You know all about violence IN games. How about violence for PLAYING games?
China has set up a clinic which (among other things) uses shock therapy to treat video game addiction. Maybe [read more]Thursday, 7 July 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| It looks like the EU's on-again off-again attempt to create a single European-wide method of patenting software is off again, for good. The bill would have given patentees EU-wide protection [read more]Wednesday, 6 July 2005 | David Spratley |
| UK tabloids are reporting that an 11 year old boy appeared in court recently to explain what drove him to stab his baby nephew while playing The Incredibles on his PS2. It's not clear whether [read more]Tuesday, 5 July 2005 | David Spratley |
| Frosty Treats is one of the largest ice cream vendors in the US. Its trucks are covered with pictures of the various products available for sale. The trucks are also labeled with [read more]Tuesday, 5 July 2005 | Dani Lemon |
| Ingenious hackers (is there any other kind?) have found a way to make the PSP play pirated copies of commercial games through the hand-held's Memory Stick slot. The hackers exploited a bug [read more]Monday, 4 July 2005 | David Spratley |
| As mentioned previously , the game industry in Japan is considering various self-regulatory initiatives in order to avoid game content legislation. The main form of self-regulation being considered [read more]Monday, 4 July 2005 | David Spratley |
| Chip-maker AMD recently filed an antitrust lawsuit against Intel in the US District Court in Delaware. AMD claims that Intel threatened AMD's customers and used other unfair tactics in an [read more]Sunday, 3 July 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Incredible Technologies Inc. created a golf video game called Golden Tee. A competitor created a similar game called PGA Tour Golf. Incredible Technologies sued.
As part of the lawsuit, [read more]Sunday, 3 July 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| In an earlier posting we reported that the Japanese video game industry was considering self-regulation to avoid government imposed regulations. Those regulations already exist in Kanagawa prefecture [read more]Tuesday, 28 June 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| The Japanese video game industry (including Sony and Nintendo) is considering self-regulation to restrict sales of violent games to minors. The hope is to avoid government legislation, in light [read more]Tuesday, 28 June 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Sony was just granted a temporary injunction against UK retailer ElectricBirdLand. The injunction prohibits the retailer from selling imported PSPs, possibly until the full case is tried in court [read more]Monday, 27 June 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Last week we reported that Sony said it wasn't planning on suing you if you bought a grey marketed PSP in Europe. (Click here for our coverage on grey marketing / parallel importing).
Now [read more]Monday, 27 June 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Last week we reported that Sony has started filing lawsuits in the UK regarding the unauthorized importation and sale of PSPs.
Sony has now offered some clarification regarding these lawsuits [read more]Saturday, 25 June 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| A recent UK study has found that people (UK people, at least) do not view downloading copyrighted material as theft. Most people view downloading a copyrighted game as somehow different from [read more]Thursday, 23 June 2005 | David Spratley |
| It appears the EU will not be successful in preventing pure software from being patented in the EU. The legislative amendments that would have done this were rejected this week.
Video [read more]Wednesday, 22 June 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| The Canadian government has tabled amendments to theCopyright Actwhich address various digital and Internet-related issues. Some of these proposed amendments are very relevant to the video game [read more]Wednesday, 22 June 2005 | David Spratley |
| A recent UK survey found that parents tend to let their children play adult-rated video games even though the parents know the games are 18-rated. Parents are aware of the games classification [read more]Wednesday, 22 June 2005 | David Spratley |
| You can stop holding your breath today's the day that the Battlenet appeal gets heard in St. Louis.
As we reported last year, Blizzard Entertainment won its lawsuit against Internet [read more]Monday, 20 June 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| In an earlier posting , we reported that porn will soon be available for the PSP. Sony now says it isn't impressed. The Japanese government probably won't be impressed either, given [read more]Monday, 20 June 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| We've told you before about the potential conflict between next-generation DVD formats. Last time this came up the parties were negotiating with respect to a single standard incorporating the [read more]Monday, 20 June 2005 | David Spratley |
| Sony recently sued several retailers who were selling imported PSPs in the UK. Sony's not happy because the PSP hasn't been officially released in Europe yet.
These unauthorized [read more]Friday, 17 June 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Microsoft has licensed NVIDIA technology to allow some backwards compatibility in the Xbox 360. The licence is necessary because the ATI chipset isn't compatible with current Xbox games, [read more]Thursday, 16 June 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| The Chinese Ministry of Culture is continuing its campaign to remove offensive content from online games. The campaign is focussed primarily on pornography, violence and gambling.
Coverage [read more]Sunday, 12 June 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| In an earlier post , we reported that Microsoft had recalled 14 million power cables because they were a potential smoke or fire hazard. Turns out the problem is bigger than Microsoft originally [read more]Friday, 10 June 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Australia has introduced new colourful game rating symbols that must be used in Australia. Although the colours are new, the highest rating available for video games is still '15+"? [read more]Thursday, 9 June 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Five years after licensing the digital gaming rights to various toy brands to Infogrames in 2005, Hasbro has now re-acquired them in a $65 million deal. In connection with this deal, Hasbro re-licensed [read more]Thursday, 9 June 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| The Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists have agreed to a deal with video game publishers, ending the threat of a strike by video game voice actors. The [read more]Thursday, 9 June 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| A disturbing episode in China highlights how seriously some people take on-line games. Qiu Chengwei spent hours playing Legend of Mir III and eventually obtained one of the game's most powerful [read more]Wednesday, 8 June 2005 | David Spratley |
| Capcom, the Japanese publisher of Grand Theft Auto III, has publicly come out against the Kanagawa Prefect's recent decision to ban the sale of the game to minors. Capcom's statement [read more]Tuesday, 7 June 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Developer Handheld Games has filed suit in Seattle against Gizmondo Europe and Tiger Telematics for breach of contract. HHG alleges that it entered into an agreement to develop a video game for [read more]Tuesday, 7 June 2005 | David Spratley |
| The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in the US has confirmed that sampling even three notes from a sound recording can violate US copyright law.
The case involved two record companies and two [read more]Monday, 6 June 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| As previously discussed , the Screen Actors Guild is in discussions with video game makers about the proper remuneration for voice actors in video games. The talks have stalled again, and on [read more]Monday, 6 June 2005 | David Spratley |
| This summer, adult publishers Glay'z and H.M.P. will release a total of 8 movies on Sony's UMD disc format, playable on the PSP. Though every PSP game must be approved by Sony prior to publication, [read more]Monday, 6 June 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| California's video game violence legislation has been shelved for now, due to lack of support. However, the Bill will likely be reconsidered in the near future. As discussed in an earlier [read more]Sunday, 5 June 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Blizzard has shut down over 50,000 Battle.net accounts for cheating. It also suspended over 8,000 CD keys and permanently banned over 3,000 CD keys.
Cheating is no fun for gamers, so it's [read more]Sunday, 5 June 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| The PSP, Sony's handheld answer to the Nintendo GameBoy and DS, has not yet launched in Europe and has had its launch date delayed more than once. ElectricBirdLand is one of the online stores [read more]Friday, 3 June 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Random House, the publisher of David Kushner's 'Masters of Doom"? is being sued for libel by Michael Wilson, the former Chief Operating Officer of Ion Storm. Mr. Wilson is alleging [read more]Friday, 3 June 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| The Louisiana Senate has a passed a bill which will grant tax credits to video game and interactive entertainment companies who establish a business in the state. Bill 341 gives a credit of [read more]Thursday, 2 June 2005 | David Spratley |
| Kanagawa prefecture, just south of Tokyo, has decided to label Grand Theft Auto III as 'harmful"?, which means the game can't be sold or rented to minors. This is the first time [read more]Wednesday, 1 June 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| A new law passed by the Ontario government eliminates censorship for films while retaining the film classification system. The law also imposes mandatory video game ratings and sets fines for [read more]Tuesday, 31 May 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Illinois' bill banning the sale of adult video games to minors has rounded third and is coming home. The bill was passed by the house, and now goes back to the Governor who proposed it. So [read more]Sunday, 29 May 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| May 18 was a sad day for video game lawyers, because on that day US Federal Judge Charles Kocoras permitted a settlement of a case between Tecmo and video game modders. NinjaHacker.net, whose [read more]Thursday, 26 May 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| The Kanagawa prefectural government in Japan is planning to submit a proposal to the prefecture's Child Welfare Council which would designate a certain violent video game as 'harmful literature" [read more]Thursday, 26 May 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Maybe.
For many years, American Needle was a non-exclusive licensee of the NFL and was permitted to sell hats bearing the names and logos of NFL teams. But recently, the NFL stopped [read more]Thursday, 26 May 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| A new report from Nintendo of America describes the company's various anti-piracy efforts in the first quarter of 2005. Nintendo, which is ramping up its anti-piracy efforts, proudly reports [read more]Thursday, 19 May 2005 | David Spratley |
| In an earlier posting we reported that Mobile games publisher Digital Bridges recently rebranded itself as 'I-Play"?. Unfortunately, the new name and logo are similar to the name [read more]Wednesday, 18 May 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| More provinces and states are jumping on the violent-video-game-law bandwagon. Manitoba's new law is set to take effect next month. It follows Nova Scotia's legislation (which took [read more]Friday, 13 May 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Immersion has settled its patent infringement dispute with Radica over Immersion's patented force feedback technology. The fact that Immersion was awarded $90M in damages against Sony for [read more]Thursday, 12 May 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Pirates recently released unauthorized copies of PSP games onto the Internet. However, the PSP has great copy protection technology there aren't any UMD burners yet, so the pirated games [read more]Monday, 9 May 2005 | Michael Coburn |
| A recent CBC article reminds us that the mere act of playing a video game (any video game) can cause actual damage to your neck, back, hands and tendons. Playing games for long periods can result [read more]Monday, 9 May 2005 | David Spratley |
| The California Assembly Arts Committee bowed to public pressure and stopped squashing the girl scouts. You can read about our previous coverage on the girl scout sqashing here .
Yesterday [read more]Friday, 6 May 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| The Safe Games Illinois Act (which we have reported on before ) is a step closer to reality, having recently been passed by the state's Senate Housing and Community Affairs Committee. The [read more]Friday, 6 May 2005 | David Spratley |
| California Assembly Bill 450 aims to ban the sale of violent video games to children. The bill failed to pass through committee yesterday, and the author of the bill, Assemblyman Leland Yee, [read more]Wednesday, 4 May 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| After nearly three years of court battles, Valve and Sierra have settled their dispute regarding the distribution of Valve's games. Valve claimed that Sierra had been unlawfully distributing [read more]Wednesday, 4 May 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Everyone knows about the V-Chip, which gives parents some control over their children's viewing habits. A new program from SMARTGuard Software aims to do the same thing for PCs. The [read more]Wednesday, 4 May 2005 | David Spratley |
| Microsoft is scheduled to unveil its new logo for the XBOX 360 on May 13. There is already plenty of speculation about what the logo will look like. For example, check out the coverage here [read more]Friday, 29 April 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| After months of competition, Elevation Partners has withdrawn from bidding for EIDOS Interactive, leaving SCi alone in the buying battle. EIDOS's shareholders are expected to vote on SCi's [read more]Monday, 25 April 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Sony has conceded to Bangladeshi demands regarding its upcoming military shooter, 'SOCOM 3"?. The latest instalment of SOCOM, set for release later this year, allegedly included Bangladesh [read more]Monday, 25 April 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| North Carolina's Senate Bill 2 has obtained state senate approval; if it is also passed by the state house and the governor, it could be North Carolina law as early as December, 2005. Bill [read more]Monday, 25 April 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| We reported last year about the looming war over next-generation DVD formats "? with Sony and Blu-Ray on one side and Toshiba's HD-DVD on the other. Well, take hope various reports [read more]Friday, 22 April 2005 | David Spratley |
| A recent post mentioned that the actors who provide voices in video games may soon be on strike, and that the old contract expired last Friday, April 15. Gamerswill be relieved to know there [read more]Tuesday, 19 April 2005 | David Spratley |
| In an earlier posting , we reported that Play-It Ltd. had sought legal advice regarding Digital Bridges' decision to rebrand itself as 'I-Play"? and adopt a logo which is similar to Play-It' [read more]Monday, 18 April 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| When the law stops working, it's time to create a dummy hash file.
Finnish Company Viralg Oy claims to have engineered digital rights protection software that generates such a file, which [read more]Monday, 18 April 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| A few years ago, PC game boxes were shrunk and standardized so game stores could cram more of them onto their tiny shelves. But today, one game retailer has grown so large that its inven [read more]Monday, 18 April 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| OK, so Nintendo didn't really say that. What they really said was 'Nintendo applauds the actions taken by the FBI. U.S. law enforcement authorities have played an instrumental role [read more]Saturday, 16 April 2005 | Michael Coburn |
| The FBI busted video game pirates trying to distribute a cache of more than 60,000 illegal Nintendo games, which were seized by the authorities in raids in New York and New Jersey. Perhaps even [read more]Friday, 15 April 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| ...is apparently a portable video game with ads. The Tiger Telematics' portable video game console "Gizmondo," which is expected to be released in North America later this year, [read more]Friday, 15 April 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| They're tough. They're smart. They have cool earpieces and sunglasses. They pack heat. And they can get secret court orders under the USA PATRIOT Act.
No, they're [read more]Thursday, 14 April 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| As if labour problems in the hockey world weren't enough! US video game voice actors, who are represented by two different unions (the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation [read more]Thursday, 14 April 2005 | David Spratley |
| The Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification has refused to classify NARC, the VIS Interactive game which allows players to be good cops or take drugs and be bad cops. Accordingly, [read more]Thursday, 14 April 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Massive Inc., the company that is taking the lead in in-game advertising, has just announced its first group of advertisers and brands. The list includes Verizon and RealNetworks (previously [read more]Tuesday, 12 April 2005 | David Spratley |
| Electronic Arts has shored up the long-term exclusive video game rights to yet another major sports licence, adding to its impressive roster which includes the NFL, Arena Football League, and ESPN [read more]Monday, 11 April 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| In almost no time, the new PSP has been hacked to allow web browsing additions, IM and TiVo playback abilities (among other things).
Hacks such as these often violate copyright law. They [read more]Monday, 11 April 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Jim Stallings, vice-president intellectual property and standards, revealed IBM's position on the patent process, particularly that of the United States. Stallings alleges that due to the [read more]Monday, 11 April 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Mobile games publisher Digital Bridges recently rebranded itself as 'I-Play"?. Unfortunately, the new name and logo are similar to the name and logo of rival publisher Play it. Appare [read more]Saturday, 9 April 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| A local radio station from Gainesville, Florida, reports that a 14-year-old Gainesville boy has been arrested and charged with aggravated child abuse for severely beating his 2-year-old cousin. Apparent [read more]Friday, 8 April 2005 | David Spratley |
| You can't have any PlayStation if you don't eat yer meat! How can you have any PlayStation if you don't eat yer meat???
Sony was just awarded US patent #6,729,337 for a method [read more]Thursday, 7 April 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Sony's new PSP has barely been released, and already various modifications are springing up that extend the handheld's capabilities. Various hacks seen thus far include ones that allow [read more]Thursday, 7 April 2005 | David Spratley |
| Actor Sean Connery is providing the voice for EA's latest James Bond game, From Russia With Love. The game will also feature the likeness of Connery as he was at the age of 33 when the film [read more]Wednesday, 6 April 2005 | Michael Coburn |
| WWE sued publisher THQ and its joint-venture partner Jakks Pacific Inc. last fall . Early this week, WWE came off the top rope to body slam THQ CEO Brian Farrell by adding him as an individual [read more]Wednesday, 6 April 2005 | David Spratley |
| We just learned that Ubisoft signed an advertising deal with several companies including Nokia. Under the agreement, Ubisoft agreed to place the companies' products in Ubisoft's latest release, [read more]Tuesday, 5 April 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| EA announced last week that it expects its current quarter's revenues to be well below (maybe as much as $200 million below) earlier estimates. EA's share price immediately dropped more [read more]Thursday, 31 March 2005 | David Spratley |
| The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has withdrawn its lawsuit against Project Entropia creator MindArk Studios. The lawsuit alleged that MindArk used unlicensed versions of Microsoft, [read more]Wednesday, 30 March 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| New York Senator Hillary Clinton has added her voice to those who oppose violent video games, and has specifically mentioned the Grand Theft Auto series as a major threat to morality. Clinton [read more]Tuesday, 29 March 2005 | David Spratley |
| A US District Court has confirmed a jury's decision requiring Sony to pay damages for patent infringement to Immersion Corp. The jury ordered Sony to pay $82 million in damages (see previous [read more]Tuesday, 29 March 2005 | David Spratley |
| Purchasers are swarming as EIDOS Interactive is on the block. Although the board of directors of EIDOS has approved a cash bid of $144 million for the company, just 25% of EIDOS's shareholders [read more]Monday, 28 March 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| On March 22, 2005, Electronic Arts' share price fell a precipitous $11.20 per share, or 16.88%. If that injury weren't enough, a Philadelphia law firm has added insult by filing [read more]Sunday, 27 March 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Earlier this month, we reported that some Xbox gamers were getting all fired up over their Xbox power cables. Literally.
Microsoft recalled 14 million of the cables, but it appears that wasn't [read more]Thursday, 24 March 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| The NBA is the most recent professional sports league to enter into new large-scale licensing arrangements with game publishers. However, instead of giving one publisher exclusive rights to use [read more]Wednesday, 23 March 2005 | David Spratley |
| ...at least if a certain Illinois bill comes into force, that is. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's proposal seeks to criminalize the sale of violent or sexually explicit video games to [read more]Monday, 21 March 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Blizzard Entertainment, the publisher and developer of the hit massively multiplayer "World of Warcraft," has permanently suspended more than one thousand "gold farming" users [read more]Monday, 21 March 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Activision and Viacom recently settled their Star Trek dispute. Sadly, the dispute has nothing to do with whether the USS Enterprise could defeat an imperial Star Destroyer. We would have [read more]Sunday, 20 March 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Last month we reported that Yahoo! had sued online gaming company Xfire for patent infringement. Yahoo! claimed that a former Yahoo employee (who now works for Xfire) developed online messaging [read more]Sunday, 20 March 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Last year, in an article (brilliantly, we think) entitled 'Maybe Modding Isn't So Marvellous"?) we reported that Marvel Comics had sued the publisher and developer of City of Heros. Marvel [read more]Sunday, 20 March 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| The Entertainment Software Rating Board recently announced the new rating category "E10+" for games suitable for children approaching their teens. The new category is meant to fill a gap [read more]Saturday, 19 March 2005 | David Spratley |
| A recent survey by Macrovision, a California-based anti-piracy firm, shows that 21 percent of console gamers use pirated software (mostly from peer to peer networks). Obviously such gamers also use [read more]Saturday, 19 March 2005 | David Spratley |
| Australia's position on mod chips just became more interesting. In 2002, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission intervened in a case launched by Sony Computer Entertainment Australia [read more]Saturday, 19 March 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Peter Jackson, who directed the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy and is currently remaking King Kong, has sued New Line Cinema for a greater share of licensing profits from the LotR movies. One of [read more]Saturday, 19 March 2005 | David Spratley |
| The families of three police officers killed in 2003 have sued Take Two, Wal-Mart, Sony and various video game stores. The lawsuit claims the teenaged killer was motivated and trained to kill [read more]Tuesday, 8 March 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| An employee of Electronic Arts has filed a class-action lawsuit for overtime. The lawsuit follows an earlier lawsuit launched against EA by another employee. To be successful, the employees [read more]Tuesday, 8 March 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Yes, we caught the pun. Here's the story the anonymous plaintiff who sued Topheavy for including topless footage of her in The Guy Game has been awarded a temporary injunction against [read more]Tuesday, 8 March 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| More than 800 Final Fantasy XI players have had their on-line accounts permanently deleted for violating the game's user agreement. For example, some of the players monopolized monsters [read more]Tuesday, 8 March 2005 | David Spratley |
| Nintendo has warned Webzen (the publisher of MU Online) that some of the characters in Webzen's new online game, Wiki, are similar to those in The Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker. Nintendo [read more]Tuesday, 8 March 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| A growing number of US jurisdictions are proposing legislation that restricts the sale of violent video games. California proposes a ban on youth access to games with graphic depictions [read more]Tuesday, 8 March 2005 | David Spratley |
| Microsoft has promised to replace more than 14 million Xbox power cables due to safety concerns, citing reports of minor injury or property damage due to faulty cables. This serves as a reminder [read more]Tuesday, 8 March 2005 | David Spratley |
| A Japanese student was arrested recently after threatening to kill his friend during an argument over - wait for it - which version of Dragon Quest was the best. The game series is so popular [read more]Tuesday, 8 March 2005 | David Spratley |
| Two recent stories address the development of in-game advertising and product tie-ins. First, Sony's new Everquest II on-line multiplayer game has a built-in function that lets players access [read more]Tuesday, 8 March 2005 | David Spratley |
| Yahoo! recently sued start-up Xfire for patent infringement. Yahoo! claims Xfire's online chat application for gamers violates Yahoo!'s GameProwler instant messenger application. Both [read more]Monday, 14 February 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| n an ongoing lawsuit between Sony and a video game salesman who installed modchips into Playstations, Sony projected a racing game on the walls of the court to demonstrate how the mod chips worked [read more]Monday, 14 February 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| The hacker who roasted 50,000 computers with his variant of the Blaster worm was recently sentenced to one and a half years in prison for his actions. His punishment could have been much more [read more]Monday, 14 February 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Take this story, for example. Michigan police recently arrested a 4-year-old boy who borrowed his parents' car in the middle of the night to rent a video game. Seriously. (We didn't [read more]Monday, 14 February 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Tecmo Inc. recently sued the website administrators of a site dedicated to hacking into video games including some of Tecmo's games. Tecmo was particularly upset about modifications of the [read more]Monday, 14 February 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Those who enjoy speculation are intrigued by two Japanese trade-mark applications filed by Nintendo in late 2004. The marks are V-POCKET and PCGP, and the applications refer to a wide range of [read more]Monday, 14 February 2005 | David Spratley |
| In a clear case of art imitating art, the February 8 episode of Law& Order Special Victims Unit dealt with teenagers who were apparently inspired by their favourite gangster-lifestyle video game [read more]Monday, 14 February 2005 | David Spratley |
| Citing links between juvenile violence and video games, Washington D.C.'s municipal government has announced that it wants to ban sales of violent and sexually explicit video games to minors. Stores [read more]Monday, 14 February 2005 | David Spratley |
| Take Two Interactive has entered into further semi-exclusive baseball agreements by signing long-term deals with MLB Properties and MLB Advanced Media, two key Major League Baseball licensing firms [read more]Monday, 14 February 2005 | David Spratley |
| The Governor of Missouri recently banned video games from Missouri prisons. He didn't like the idea of allowing Missouri's most violent inmates to play games simulating murders and carjackings [read more]Thursday, 27 January 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| China has banned the sale and distribution of 50 video games. Some of the games are pirated and others violate Chinese gaming regulations which outlaw games that "hurt national dignity" [read more]Thursday, 27 January 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Talk about bad break-ups. A woman is facing criminal charges in Japan after deleting her ex-boyfriend's data on "Lineage", a popular online fantasy game. The woman wasn't [read more]Thursday, 27 January 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| There's more to watch out for online than upset ex-girlfriends. A new Trojan horse called "LegMir-Y" is also out to steal usernames and passwords for Lineage. And as it turns [read more]Thursday, 27 January 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| 3D Realms has shut down development of an amateur mod for Half-Life 2 which was meant to recreate Duke Nukem 3D. 3D Realms, which developed the classic Duke Nukem 3D, is currently working on [read more]Thursday, 27 January 2005 | David Spratley |
| Take 2 Interactive has reached an agreement in principle with the Major League Baseball Players Association to develop and publish baseball video games. Under this seven-year deal, Take 2 will [read more]Thursday, 27 January 2005 | David Spratley |
| Microsoft has filed a US patent application for a system that will help consumers determine whether their PCs can run a particular piece of software. The system involves a "capability tool", [read more]Thursday, 27 January 2005 | David Spratley |
| Sony has also filed a US patent application, this one to do with wirelessly connecting portable game machines (ie Sony's new handheld PSP) with various Internet-connected devices. The application [read more]Thursday, 27 January 2005 | David Spratley |
| A new US patent might describe key elements of the XBOX2, including a system of multiple processors which work together to generate realistic geometry while simultaneously managing other routine [read more]Tuesday, 18 January 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| A jury has awarded Immersion Corp. $82 million in damages after deciding that the rumble feature in Sony's Dual Shock controllers violates two US patents owned by Immersion. Sony was also [read more]Tuesday, 18 January 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| A Texas court has ordered that Microsoft, Sony and others temporarily stop selling "The Guy Game", which contains topless images of the plaintiff. At the time the photos were taken, [read more]Tuesday, 18 January 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| The governor of Illinois has proposed new state legislation prohibiting the sale or rental of excessively violent and sexually explicit video games to children younger than 18. The proposed legislation [read more]Tuesday, 18 January 2005 | David Spratley |
| Electronic Arts continued its trend of signing exlusive licence agreements with everyone under the sun (except for us, apparently, but we haven't given up hope) by announcing an unprecedented [read more]Tuesday, 18 January 2005 | David Spratley |
| Sports giant Reebok has signed a multi-title sponsorship agreement with Electronic Arts, under which Reebok's products will be included in various EA sports games. Reebok sees this as a natural [read more]Tuesday, 18 January 2005 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary)
Davidson & Associates v. Internet Gateway, et al
US Court of Appeal for the 8th Circuit (2005) No. 04-3654
The plaintiffs do business as Blizzard Entertainmen [read more]Saturday, 1 January 2005 | David Spratley |
| First-person shooter "Postal 2" has been banned by the Office of Film and Literature Classification in New Zealand, in part because of the game's use of urine in association with degrading [read more]Thursday, 16 December 2004 | Chris Bennett |
| On a similar note, Illinois is considering legislation to regulate the sale and rental of explicit video games. The legislation would make it a crime to sell or rent such games to minors.
Coverage [read more]Thursday, 16 December 2004 | Chris Bennett |
| Blizzard Entertainment recently won its lawsuit against Internet Gateway Inc. and various individuals who reverse engineered Blizzard's software and protocols to create the bnetd project, a free [read more]Thursday, 16 December 2004 | Chris Bennett |
| 321 Studios Inc., whose Games X Copy software allowed users to make backup copies of copy-protected PC games, has agreed never to make or sell software that lets users create copies of computer games [read more]Thursday, 16 December 2004 | David Spratley |
| Three DC-area video game stores were raided recently, resulting in the seizure of equipment and the arrest of two employees. The charge modifying Xbox consoles so that they could play pirated [read more]Thursday, 16 December 2004 | David Spratley |
| Half-Life 2 maker Valve has hit back at players who obtained pirated copies of its popular new game. To be able to play, players must set up an account on Steam, Valve's online gaming community [read more]Thursday, 16 December 2004 | David Spratley |
| Several major video game publishers have been sued for patent infringement in respect of their 3D graphics display techniques. The U.S. patent in question protects a system for 3D spherical panning [read more]Tuesday, 23 November 2004 | Chris Bennett |
| Microsoft has begun checking its Xbox Live users' consoles for mods, refusing to let modified consoles participate in online games. Microsoft says the purpose of this new policy is to reduce [read more]Tuesday, 23 November 2004 | Chris Bennett |
| Marvel Enterprises Inc. sued NcSoft Corp. and Cryptic Studios Inc. in regard to their massively multiplayer game "City of Heroes". Marvel claims that the character customization functionality [read more]Tuesday, 23 November 2004 | Chris Bennett |
| The Supreme Court of India recently ruled that off-the-shelf computer software is a "good", which means it's subject to sales tax in India. The plaintiff unsuccessfully argued that [read more]Tuesday, 23 November 2004 | Chris Bennett |
| Scottish publisher Traffic Management recently released JFK Reloaded, a game that allows the player to recreate the assassination of JFK. We suspect people's opinions about the game may divide [read more]Tuesday, 23 November 2004 | Chris Bennett |
| Screenwriter Roger Avary has sued Microsoft Corp. and games publisher ResponDesign Inc. for $30 million plus punitive damages. Avary claims that the yoga game "Yourself! Fitness", recently [read more]Tuesday, 23 November 2004 | David Spratley |
| EA has made an offer to buy all the outstanding shares of Swedish developer Digital Illusions CE, known for its Battlefield and Rallisport Challenge series.
Coverage at http://shorl.com/balimytetuta [read more]Tuesday, 23 November 2004 | David Spratley |
| Two new rival DVD formats are preparing for hostilities similar to those that occurred between VHS and Beta in the 1980s. Both formats -- "Blu Ray", which is backed by Sony, and "HD [read more]Tuesday, 23 November 2004 | David Spratley |
| A California law firm is attempting to certify a class action on behalf of Electronic Arts employees who claim that EA owes them unpaid overtime pay. The dispute revolves around whether EA improperly [read more]Tuesday, 23 November 2004 | David Spratley |
| The Beijing Haidian District People's Court has heard its first lawsuit brought by game developers against their employers. Two game developers who worked on a game but were not listed as [read more]Tuesday, 23 November 2004 | David Spratley |
| A disgruntled Xbox owner has started an action against Microsoft in the Los Angeles Superior Court, claiming that his Xbox lost its ability to read discs after less than a year of use. The action [read more]Thursday, 4 November 2004 | David Spratley |
| Video games are growing in popularity and pulling audiences away from more traditional forms of entertainment such as movies and television. And where audiences go, advertisers are quick to follow [read more]Wednesday, 3 November 2004 | David Spratley |
| World Wrestling Entertainment has sued video game publisher THQ and its joint-venture partner Jakks Pacific Inc. in response to what the WWE calls a "commercial bribery scheme". WWE [read more]Wednesday, 3 November 2004 | Chris Bennett |
| (This is an archived case summary)
Washington State introduced legislation penalizing the distribution of violent video games to minors. Video game manufacturers, distributors, retailers and software [read more]Thursday, 15 July 2004 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary)
Sony manufactured and sold PlayStation games on CD-ROMs for which it owned the copyright. To protect its copyright, Sony imbedded an "access code" [read more]Thursday, 24 June 2004 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary)
The Court considered whether a licence authorizing the use of a patent to make and sell a product protected a third party purchaser from liability for patent [read more]Friday, 28 May 2004 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary.)
321 Studios is the maker of “DVD Copy Plus”, a product that makes backup personal copies of movies on DVD. A U.S. federal court in California ruled [read more]Thursday, 19 February 2004 | Chris Bennett |
| (This is an archived case summary.)
This case challenged the constitutionality of an ordinance of St.Louis County, which made it unlawful to knowingly sell, rent, make available, or permit the [read more]Tuesday, 3 June 2003 | Chris Bennett |
| A long running dispute between the World Wresting Federation (the "Federation") and the World Wide Fund for Nature(the "Fund") over the use of the initials "WWF," in a logo referred to as the "Scratch" [read more]Thursday, 27 March 2003 | Dani Lemon |
| (This is an archived case summary.)
Morrison alleged that the POKEMON trade-mark caused reverse confusion with its MONSTER IN MY POCKET mark, and applied for summary judgment. That application [read more]Wednesday, 1 January 2003 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary)
James et al.v.Meow Media et al.,
2002 FED App. 0270P (6thCir.),
US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, No. 00-5922 (August 13, 2002)
On December [read more]Tuesday, 13 August 2002 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary)
Sony manufactured and sold PlayStation games on CD-ROMs for which it owned the copyright. To protect its copyright, Sony imbedded an "access code" [read more]Friday, 26 July 2002 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary.)
In this case the court denied a summary judgment application on the grounds that the defendant required full discovery in order to defend itself against [read more]Tuesday, 1 January 2002 | David Spratley |
| On November 22, 1997, thirteen-year-old Noah Wilson died when his friend Yancy stabbed him in the chest with a kitchen knife. Noah's mother, Andrea Wilson, sued Midway Games, Inc., alleging that [read more]Tuesday, 1 January 2002 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary)
Nintendo wanted to have an opportunity to question the family doctor of a child who allegedly developed epileptic seizures after playing Nintendo games. The [read more]Wednesday, 28 November 2001 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary)
The plaintiff association brought a freedom of speech challenge to an Indianapolis ordinance that restricted access to anyone under 18 to arcade games that were [read more]Wednesday, 21 March 2001 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary.)
Nintendo produces the GameBoy as well as a number of accessories including the GameLink, GameCamera and the GameBoy Printer. Battery Technology Inc. ('BTI”) [read more]Monday, 1 January 2001 | Chris Bennett |
| (This is an archived case summary.)
GE sued Nintendo, claiming that several of Nintendo's game systems (including the Gameboy) infringed GE's patents. The lower court ruled in favour of [read more]Friday, 1 January 1999 | Chris Bennett |
| (This is an archived case summary.)
Duke Nukem 3-D (DN 3-D) was shipped with a Build Editor which allowed fans to create their own levels for DN 3-D. Players were encouraged to build their own [read more]Thursday, 1 January 1998 | Chris Bennett |
| (This is an archived case summary.)
In this 1997 Pennsylvania case, the plaintiff, who had created an unpublished manuscript called “Awesome Possum,” brought a copyright infringement [read more]Friday, 20 June 1997 | Dani Lemon |
| (This is an archived case summary.)
Three individuals modelled for Midway, which designs, manufactures, and sells video games including “Mortal Kombat” and “Mortal Kombat II” [read more]Wednesday, 28 May 1997 | Chris Bennett |
| (This is an archived case summary.)
Nintendo alleged that Prima Communications had infringed its copyright in the "GoldenEye 007" video game by publishing the "GoldenEye 007 Unauthorized [read more]Wednesday, 1 January 1997 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary)
MAPHIA was a San Francisco-based BBS provider whose users had been uploading and downloading Sega video games without authorization. SEGA was able to prove that [read more]Wednesday, 18 December 1996 |
| (This is an archived case summary)
The Court of Appeal affirmed the District Court's decision enjoining Brown from selling video game cartridges that infringed copyrights and trade-marks owned [read more]Monday, 1 January 1996 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary)
Nintendo appealed a District Court ruling that awarded Alpex Computer Corporation $253 million in damages (equivalent to a 6% royalty) for patent infringement [read more]Monday, 1 January 1996 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary.)
C&E Inc. produced the SuperUFO, a device which plugs into Nintendo game consoles and allows the user to format disks, copy games and play copied games. [read more]Monday, 1 January 1996 | Chris Bennett |
| (This is an archived case summary)
Edward Gussin, who had invented an electronic drawing and colouring system, tried to claim that Nintendo's “Mario Paint” infringed his patent [read more]Thursday, 3 August 1995 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary)
NTN developed an interactive game played in conjunction with televised football called "QB1", which it licensed to Interactive to sell together with [read more]Sunday, 1 January 1995 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary.)
The defendants, NTDEC and Megasoff Inc., appealed a default judgment issued by the District Court to Nintendo on the basis of copyright and trade-mark infringement [read more]Sunday, 1 January 1995 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary.)
In 1994, Capcom sought a preliminary injunction to prevent Data East from producing, marketing or selling “Fighter's History” anywhere in the [read more]Friday, 18 March 1994 | Chris Bennett |
| (This is an archived case summary)
Midway owned the copyright and related trade-marks for the video game “Mortal Kombat". PIL published a book entitled “Strategies for Mortal [read more]Saturday, 1 January 1994 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary.)
Dragon Pacific International was a Taiwanese business which produced and distributed multi-game cartridges for the Nintendo game console. The games stored on [read more]Saturday, 1 January 1994 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary)
Nintendo appealed a District Court ruling that the Game Genie does not violate any Nintendo copyrights. The Game Genie is a device that is placed between the [read more]Thursday, 21 May 1992 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary)
In the course of a copyright infringement suit alleging Omni Video Games had infringed its copyrights in “Pac-Man", “Rally X", and “Galaxian" Midway Manufacturing [read more]Monday, 4 November 1991 | Dani Lemon |
| (This is an archived case summary.)
Nintendo applied for a preliminary injunction prohibiting the sale of Game Genies in Canada. Nintendo argued that Camerica was depreciating the goodwill of [read more]Tuesday, 1 January 1991 | Chris Bennett |
| (This is an archived case summary.)
Nintendo sought an order declaring the defendants to be in contempt of a court order restraining them from trading in an infringing multi-game video game [read more]Tuesday, 1 January 1991 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary.)
The plaintiffs objected to the notice to consumers and terms of a proposed settlement between Nintendo and the fifty state attorneys general over a national [read more]Tuesday, 1 January 1991 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary)
Numerous states sued Nintendo under antitrust laws. The parties agreed to settle, and drafted a settlement agreement. The Attorneys General of all 50 states [read more]Tuesday, 1 January 1991 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary.)
On behalf of retail purchasers in California, the plaintiffs alleged that Nintendo had violated California antitrust laws through its monopoly on video game [read more]Monday, 1 January 1990 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary)
Accolade and the defendants entered into a licence agreement under which the defendants were to develop the video game "The Duel -- Test Drive II" [read more]Monday, 1 January 1990 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary)
A mother brought a wrongful death action against TSR, the manufacturer of the pen-and-paper roleplaying game “Dungeons& Dragons”, for the suicide [read more]Monday, 1 January 1990 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary)
This case addressed the constitutionality of Quebec legislation prohibiting commercial advertising directed at persons less than thirteen years of age. A key [read more]Thursday, 27 April 1989 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary)
This was an action by Nintendo challenging the validity of Magnavox's “Television Gaming Apparatus” patent, issued in 1972, and the infringement [read more]Sunday, 1 January 1989 | Dani Lemon |
| (This is an archived case summary)
This was an appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in favour of counterclaims brought by the defendants, [read more]Wednesday, 1 January 1986 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary)
This case involved two gorillas, King Kong and Donkey Kong, and the rights of their respective owners, plaintiff Universal City Studios, Inc. (“Universal”), [read more]Tuesday, 1 January 1985 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary)
Universal City Studios (“Universal”), claiming ownership of the trade-mark “King Kong”, sued Nintendo Co. Ltd. and Nintendo of America, [read more]Sunday, 1 January 1984 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary)
Atari and Midway obtained an injunction against Tryom, whose game “Gobbleman” or “Nibbleman” embodied characters, symbols, and non-functional [read more]Thursday, 17 November 1983 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary)
This 1983 judgment of the District Court of Nebraska found the defendants liable for copyright and trademark infringement of three Midway coin-operated arcade [read more]Thursday, 1 September 1983 | Dani Lemon |
| (This is an archived case summary.)
Arctic International sold two types of circuit boards for coin-operated video games. The first increased the rate of play of "Galaxian" a video [read more]Saturday, 1 January 1983 | Chris Bennett |
| (This is an archived case summary)
This was one of the first Canadian cases to consider whether copyright could attach to the source code of a game. The defendant's game units would flash [read more]Wednesday, 8 December 1982 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary)
Magnavox claimed that Mattel had, through the manufacture, use and sale of Intellivision video games, infringed Magnavox's “Television Gaming Apparatus” [read more]Wednesday, 21 July 1982 | Dani Lemon |
| (This is an archived case summary)
The plaintiff wanted to open a restaurant with forty tables equipped with built-in coin-operated video games, thus allowing patrons to dine and blast space invaders [read more]Friday, 1 January 1982 | David Spratley |
| (This is an archived case summary)
Nintendo sought and received an injunction against Elcon, who had been importing circuit boards manufactured by Falcon into the United States. Falcon was a past [read more]Friday, 1 January 1982 | David Spratley |
| Williams Electronics Inc. v. Artic International is a key case which established that copyright exists in video games.
Williams Electronics manufactured and sold a coin-operated electronic video [read more]Friday, 1 January 1982 | Chris Bennett |
| The defendant published a game called “Jawbreaker” which was created by John Harris. Harris admitted to getting the idea from “Pac-Man”. Jawbreaker was already being marketed [read more]Monday, 28 December 1981 | David Spratley |
|
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