Lawsuits
Case Update: Activision v. Gibson – Claim Construction
As previously reported, Gibson asserts that Activision’s Guitar Hero franchise infringes on some Gibson patents. Gibson’s patent claims a “musical instrument” that produces an “instrument audio signal.” Naturally, in view of Guitar…
Case Update: Bally v. IGT (D.Nev.)
In Bally Gaming Inc. v. IGT, case number 3:06-cv-00483, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, Bally Sued International Game Technology (IGT) for infringement of U.S. Pat. No. 7,100,916.…
Case: Merit v. JVL settles in E.D. Penn.
Merit Industries Inc. v. JVL Corp. case number 03-1618 (E.D. Penn – Settled) Merit Industries and JVL Corp. have settled their ongoing litigation over countertop arcade games. Merit sued JVL back in…
News: CBS sues NFL over Fantasy stats…
In a move reminiscent of the CBC v. MLB case over use of baseball players’ names and statistics in fantasy football leagues, CBS Interactive sued the NFL Players’ Association over the rights…
Case: Frybarger v. IBM (9th Cir. 1987) – Copyright
Frybarger v. Int’l Business Mach. Corp. 812 F.2d 525 (9th Cir. 1987) Before the introduction of sprawling virtual environments, ragdoll physics, and parallel GPUs, the video game industry lived in an 8-bit…
Case: Incredible Tech. v. Virtual Tech (7th Cir. 2005)
Incredible Technologies, Inc. v. Virtual Technologies, Inc. 400 F.3d 1007 (7th Cir. 2005) If someone familiar with Golden Tee, the ubiquitous pub golf video game, was asked to describe its unique characteristics,…
Case Update: Anascape v. Nintendo final judgment
In the ongoing dispute between Anascape, Ltd., an invention and license-holding company, against Nintendo of America regarding Nintendo’s use of three patents a jury had found the video game company to infringe,…
News: Banner & Witcoff Secures Virtual World Win
Banner & Witcoff Secures Favorable Settlement for Client Regarding Intellectual Property and Land Dispute in Second Life (Washington, D.C., July 22, 2008) – Banner & Witcoff Ltd., one of the largest law…
News: Konami sues Viacom over Rock Band
Konami Digital Entertainment Co. v. Harmonix Music Systems, Inc. No. 6:08-CV-286, (E.D. Tx, Filed July 9, 2008) Summary by Steve Chang, Esq. If you build it, they will come. The tagline from…
Case: Sega v. Accolade (9th Cir. 1992) – Copyright Fair Use
Sega Enterprises Ltd. v. Accolade Inc. 977 F.2d 1510 (9th Cit. 1992) If you owned a Sega Genesis at any time in your life, chances are you will NEVER forget the singsong…
Case Update: Anascape v. Nintendo
As indicated in a previous post, Anascape Ltd., an invention and license-holding company, sued Microsoft and Nintendo for patent infringement over their controllers for their respective video game console systems. Microsoft settled…
New Case: Nintendo v. Nyko (W.D. Wash.) Filed June 10, 2008
Nintendo of America Inc. v. Nyko Technologies Inc. Case number 08-cv-907 U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington Nintendo of America filed a lawsuit on June 10, 2008, against Nyko…
Case: Anascape Ltd. v. Microsoft et al. (E.D.Tex. 2008) [P]
Back in July 2006, Anascape Ltd. sued Microsoft and Nintendo over various game controller patents, including United States Patent Numbers 5,999,084; 6,102,802; 6,135,886; 6,208,271; 6,222,525; 6,343,991; 6,344,791; 6,347,997; 6,351,205; 6,400,303; 6,563,415; and…
Case: In re Bilski – Federal Circuit oral argument
The status quo is that video game play methods are patentable subject matter, provided the game play methodology is new, useful, and nonobvious. Never before has there been a case with the…
News: Korean Copyright Suit over Advent Rising
I don’t normally track foreign video game cases, but perhaps I should. However, it does make one more category of work for me in view of all my regular work and blogging…
Case: Eros v. Simon (SETTLED 2007) – Second Life
Somehow this well reported case got overlooked here at the Patent Arcade, and that appears to be because I thought I’d already written about it. In any event, it now gets its…
Case: Tafas v. Dudas (USPTO rules)
Today the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia granted Tafas’ and Smithkline Beecham’s Motions for Summary Judgment, effectively holding that the USPTO’s proposed 5/25 and 2+1 rules regarding claims…
Case Update: MDY v Blizzard – Summary Judgment Motions
Well it looks like this case has not settled yet, and the parties have filed their summary judgment motions. MDY’s Motion can be viewed here. Blizzard’s filings are here, here, and here.
Case: Eros v. Leatherwood (Settled, March 2008)
Eros, the maker of the Second Life sex bed, sued the avatar Volkov Catteneo for illegally copying and selling unlicensed copies of the sex bed, thereby infringement the intellectual property of Eros.…
Case: Activision v. Gibson (C.D.Cal.) PENDING
After receiving a letter accusing them of patent infringement, Activision filed a declaratory judgment action March 12, 2008, against Gibson Guitars, asking the court for finding of invalidity and noninfringement. Gibson is…