News
News: Santa Clara Law School Hosts Open House in Second Life
From Leigh Jones, Associate editor at the National Law Journal: –In what is considered the first event of its kind, Santa Clara University School of Law is holding an open house in…
News: Guitar Hero/Rock Band for a REAL guitar
You know, I’ve been waiting for over a year since I first heard about Guitar Rising, a Guitar Hero style video game that you can play with a REAL guitar. It seems…
In memoriam: A loss to the Virtual World community…
The Patent Arcade is sad to report that we have lost one of our own. Steve Davidson, a friend, colleague, and groundbreaking attorney in the video game and virtual world fields, passed…
News: Trademark Registration for Second Life Avatar
Its not every day that we get to report TRADEMARK news, so this is a refreshing change from the norm. On Nov. 11, 2008, the United States Patent & Trademark Office granted…
News: Japanese avatar kills virtual husband after “divorce”
The stories just keep on flowing. Who knew that divorce could lead to a virtual killing, and subsequent arrest for hacking? Read the story here. In short, a 43-year-old Japanese woman killed…
News: Dutch court convicts teens for theft of virtual goods
From the AP wire: October 21, 2008. AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – A Dutch court has convicted two youths of theft for stealing virtual items in a computer game and sentenced them to community…
News: Sandra Day O’Connor, Game Designer
So this blog tracks video game IP law updates, but here is a morsel that I just had to comment on: Sandra Day O’Connor (yes, THE Sandra Day O’Connor, i.e., the first…
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…
News: Disney to shutter Virtual Magic Kingdom
Disney has announced that its Virtual Magic Kingdom will close May 21, 2008,… for good. The VMK is no longer accepting new users, either. Disney’s VMK was launched in 2005 as a…
News: IBM to host private Second Life regions
IBM said today that it would become the first company to host private regions of the virtual world Second Life on its own computer servers. if(window.yzq_d==null)window.yzq_d=new Object(); window.yzq_d[‘rMuhOkLEYpU-‘]=’&U=1270rgt1l%2fN%3drMuhOkLEYpU-%2fC%3d-1%2fD%3dRMP%2fB%3d-1’; The project is in…
News: Second Life creates Brand Center to protect its trademarks
As Second Life matures, they are taking some fairly customary steps, one of which is to take a more proactive role to protect their own intellectual property. In this vein, Linden Labs…
U.S. Patent: 6,264,560 – USPTO grants re-exam request
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office agreed to re-examine online-gaming patent 6,264,560 after the Electronic Frontier Foundation challenged it on the grounds that the technology covered by the patent had been used…
News: Man saves lives playing AMERICA’S ARMY
Ok, “saves lives” may be a bit of an exaggeration, but what is true is that a North Carolina man assisted passengers from an SUV he saw flip on a highway, using…
News: MMOGs on the rise
The trend continues, and MMOGs are getting even more popular. Here are a couple recent articles that you might find of interest: From WIRED, this article discusses three new MMOGs being released…
News: Chinese lawsuit over virtual goods
As reported by Virtually Blind, Shanda, developer of MMORPG The World of Legend, has been ordered to pay 5,000 Yuan (US $679) and apologize to a gamer for taking away his virtual…
News: Second Life CTO resigns
Sorry I’ve been radio silent for a while. Life has been busy, you know how it goes… In any event, it appears that Cory Ondrejka, employee No. 4 at San Francisco-based Linden…
News: Second Life IP theft lawsuit
More Second Life news: As reported in the New York Post, a half-dozen entrepreneurs are suing a Queens man, charging him with counterfeiting and selling versions of their products. Here’s the catch:…
News: Change in Second Life ownership policy???
As originally reported on Terra Nova, Linden Labs appears to have made a potentially significant change to the wording on its home page. The home page used to read:“Second Life is a…
News: Potential DMCA fair use relief on the way?
As reported on GamePolitics.com, Later today the ECA will announce its support for HR1201, known as the Fair Use Act of 2007. The proposed legislation will give consumers limited rights to circumvent…
News: Microsoft spins off Bungie Studios
Well its old news by now, but in case you haven’t heard, Microsoft and Bungie announced on Friday that Bungie has split off from Microsoft, becoming an independent entity. Bungie will still…