Posts
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…
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…
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…
Case Update: Willis v. Electronic Arts (D.Nev.)
Willis v. Electronic Arts U.S. District Court, District of Nevada Case No. 08-cv-01311, Filed September, 29, 2008 Case Update: This case was closed on November 18, 2009, following notice of voluntary dismissal…
Case: Aristocrat v. IGT (Fed. Cir. 2008)
Aristocrat v. IGT United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Decided Sep. 22, 2008 At this stage, this case is more about an esoteric legal issue, rather than any substantive…
FLASH OF GENIUS: Would a patent attorney be a hero or villain in film?
Villian… I suspect. Its not every day that we see a video game embrace an attorney as a central character. Normally the attorneys are the ridicule of the game, but one game…
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…