Lawsuits
New Case: Dream Games v. PC Onsite (9th Cir) [C]
Dream Games of Arizona Inc. v. PC Onsite 9th Cir., No. 07-15847, 4/2/2009 This is a placeholder post until we can review and provide more info. But in brief… (From BNA): A…
Case Update: MOAEC v. Pandora [P] (April 8, 2009)
April 8, 2009, Chicago — The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin granted summary judgment for Banner & Witcoff’s client Pandora in a patent infringement suit brought by MOAEC,…
Banner & Witcoff Secures Pandora Win
For those Pandora fans out there, I am pleased to report that our law firm represents Pandora in this case. If any of the media who track my blog would like to…
Case Update: MDY v. Blizzard
The creator of a software bot designed to allow users of Blizzard Entertainment Inc.’s World of Warcraft to continue playing the online role-playing game while away from their computers remains on the…
Update: ADC v. Microsoft et al.
In a previous post, we reported on the filing of this patent lawsuit regarding pay-for-download software over a computer network, e.g., including games. Well it appears that Sony is out of the…
THE FAMILY GUY v. JIMINY CRICKET (Copyright Fair Use)
Bourne Co. v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. et al. U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. March 16, 2009 Ok, the case isn’t REALLY Peter Griffin versus a…
News: Sheperd Farey/AP Copyright Dispute Images
This isn’t exactly video game related, so I won’t take up much of your time, but if anyone was looking for a side-by-side comparison of the Shepherd Farey Obama poster next to…
Case: Zynga v. CLZ Concepts (filed 2/27/09, ND Cal.) [copyright]
Zynga Game Network on February 27, 2009, filed suit against CLZ Concepts, Jeff Chen, and James Zhang asserting copyright infringement. The case is 3:09-cv-00854-EMC in the District Court for the Northern District…
CASE SETTLED: Square Enix v. various sword retailers
On February 24, 2009, Square Enix settled another lawsuit. According to its press release, the lawsuit named at least four national wholesalers of unlicensed sword replicas and their principals that have infringed…
Case: Harmonix v. Konami (Mass.)
Harmonix and Viacom jointly filed suit in the District of Massachusetts against Konami for patent infringement. The lawsuit alleges Konami’s “ROCK REVOLUTION” video game infringes U.S. Pat. No., 7,459,624 entitled “Game controller…
New Case: Worlds.com v. NCSoft (E.D.Tex., filed Dec. 24, 2008)
Merry Christmas, you’ve been sued. It’s not uncommon for plaintiffs to file lawsuits around the holidays in order to “turn the screws” on defendants, and that appears to be the case here.…
Case Update: Nintendo v. Nyko SETTLED
As previously reported, Nintendo sued Nyko for design patent infringement and trademark infringement over the Wii’s nunchuk controller. On Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008, the parties filed a STIPULATION for Dismissal of Action…
Case: Capcom v. MKR (ND Cal. 2008)
Capcom Co., Ltd. et. al. v. The MKR Group N.D. Cal. 2008 (by Shawn Gorman) While relatively short lived, this legal battle provides several insights for both video game producers and their…
Case: THQ v. Activision – SETTLED
Well, as is often the case, the cost to settle far outweighs the cost to litigate to prove a point. It appears that is true here. As we previously reported, THQ sued…
New Case: Motiva v. Nintendo (patent infringement)
Well, it looks like Nintendo has been sued for patent infringement again. This time by Motiva LLC, for infringement of U.S. Pat. No. 7,292,151, which is directed to a “Human Movement Measurement…
Case: ESS v. Rock Star (9th Cir. 2008) [T]
E.S.S. Entertainment 2000 v. Rock Star Video __ F.3d __ (9th Cir. 2008) (by Shawn Gorman) The (in)famous Grand Theft Auto series, produced by Rock Star Games, has become synonymous with legal…
IP Alert: In re Bilski
Further to the previous post, here is a more comprehensive write-up prepared by Brad Wright, a partner of mine at Banner & Witcoff, Ltd.: Intellectual Property Advisory: Court Limits Patents on Business…
Case: In re Bilski limits patentable subject matter
While not strictly a video game case, the Federal Circuit today (October 30, 2008) released its decision in In re Bilski regarding the limits on patentable subject matter, which could certainly affect…
New Case: THQ v. Activision Blizzard
On October 23, 2008, THQ filed a new lawsuit against Activision Blizzard for trade dress and copyright infringement regarding Activision’s planned release of “SCORE International Baja 1000 The Official Game” in late…
Case: MDY v. Blizzard (D.Az. 2008) [C]
MDY Industries, LLC v. Blizzard Entertainment, Inc., et al. (D. Ariz. 2008) Update on December 14, 2010: The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s 2009 injunction barring the…