Analysis
Patent Lawsuits Decline – Patent Lawsuits to Become Harder to File
For the first time since 2009, new patent lawsuit filings declined in 2014 from the previous year. Lawsuits dropped by 13 percent, a significant shift from the numbers of cases over the…
What NOT to name your product…
We get asked… often… what sorts of names are best for your video game. This post isn’t a treatise on how to name your video game. This post is a poster child…
U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked by a client or potential client whether they can include Element X from someone else’s game in their own game. It’s a…
Commentary: Alice v. CLS Bank
Patent Law Update June 20, 2014 Computer-Implemented Inventions: Ideas That Are Fundamental Truths And Generically Implemented Are Not Patent EligibleIn a unanimous opinion authored by Justice Thomas on June 19, 2014, the Court…
How a “Patent Box” Could Change the U.S. Console and Game Development Industry
In recent years there has been a push from some members of Congress to introduce what is called a “patent box” into the corporate tax system in the United States. In essence,…
Chief Judge Rader Pens Op-Ed in New York Times
Yesterday there was an Op-Ed in the New York Times presenting the opinion that District Court Judges should use already existing portions of the law more often to shift fees in patent…
Drafting a Social Media Handbook Policy for Developers
Gamasutra has just posted a new article by attorney Preeti Khanolkar regarding drafting a social media handbook policy for developers. The article covers federal labor law, potential conflicts, FTC endorsement guidelines, and…
Analysis of First Amendment Defense in Trademark Cases
A recent decision coming from the Southern District of New York raises important implications about the usage of trademarks without permission in artistic works. While this case concerns the usage of unauthorized…
GTLD Application Reveal: List of applicants announced
By Richard S. Stockton and Victoria R. M. Webb The application period for new generic top level domains (which will supplement existing gTLDs like “.com”) closed on May 30, 2012. On June…
Article: Bilski’s Potential Impact on the Gambling Industry
Further to the previous post on the Supreme Court’s decision in Bilski v. Kappos, here is a link to an article discussing potential impacts of the decision on the gambling industry. The…
Outrageous! Why am I Outraged?
So word has hit the Internet that Facebook’s U.S. Patent No. 7,669,123, entitled “Dynamically Providing a News Feed About a User of a Social Network,” issued last week, and it’s certainly created…
Conan the Mushroom King
CONAN THE MUSHROOM KING So we’ve noticed some buzz on the Internet lately about the backdrop to Conan O’Brien’s Tonight Show set. The guys at Serious Lunch posted the backdrop, and what…
Is artistic style a new type of Video Game IP?
Courts have held that artists’ copyright protection can extend beyond their literal pictorial works, and some courts have even insinuated that an artist can receive copyright expression for their artistic style, e.g.,…
Publication: Top Ten Video Game Patents
TOP TEN VIDEO GAME PATENTSby Ross Dannenberg & Steve Chang When the editors at Gamasutra asked us to prepare a list of the top ten video game patents, we initially thought “Hey,…
Sidebar: Auditorium Space Invaders
This just made me laugh. The things you can do in an auditorium… SPACE INVADERS!
Publication: Developer Guidelines for Preserving Patent Rights
As promised in my previous post regarding a general introduction to IP, linked below you will find a previously published article regarding the preservation of patent rights. This article may be particularly…
Publication: IP Primer
We’ve fielded some inquiries regarding materials providing an introduction to intellectual property, as well as more basic information regarding patent law in general. Below is the text to an article that Jordan…
Article: Copyright Preregistration as Protection for Video Games
Marc Cooperman and Michael Krashin recently penned an article discussing preregistration of copyrights as an additional form of protection for video games. When video game software is pirated or leaked before the…
News: Musings About Modding
The ‘hot coffee’ mod for Grand Theft Auto resulted in the game’s rating being changed from Mature to Adults Only. Many games not only don’t mind modding, but the game’s developer actually…
Article: Patenting of Video Games
Gamasutra.com is presently running an article which Steve Chang and I wrote as their feature article: *** Today’s feature, subtitled ‘Top Mythconceptions on Patent Protection of Video Games’ and from IP lawyers…