Posts
News: quoted in USA Today re Facebook lawsuit
Well its not a video game lawsuit, but interesting nonetheless. And, yes, this post could be considered shameless self-promotion. Nonetheless, I was recently quoted in USA Today in an article regarding the…
U.S. Patent No. 6,729,954: Battle Method with Attack Power Based on Character Group Density
United States Patent No. 6,729,954 Battle Method with Attack Power Based on Character Group Density Issued May 4, 2004, assigned to Koei Co., Ltd. Summary: Although the Sam Fishers, John Matrixs, Solid…
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.,…
Case Update: Konami v. Roxor (E.D.Tex, SETTLED 2007)
Konami v. Roxor (E.D.Tex 2007 – SETTLED) We previously reported that Konami Corporation sued Roxor Games, Inc. in the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, alleging patent infringement, trademark…
Case: Micro Star v. Formgen (9th Cir. 1998) [C]
Micro Star v. FormGen Inc. 154 F.3d 1107 (9th Cir. 1998) Judge Kosinski opens his opinion by positing the most poignant of questions: “Duke Nukem routinely vanquishes Octabrain and the Protozoid Slimer.…
News: GNU GPL v. 3 released
Today the Free Software Foundation released version 3 of the GNU General Public License. The new version of the license contains a lengthy patent license provision, copied below, that users should be…
Free PDF Patents
If you’re looking for copies of patents, here are a few resources to help you out:1) The USPTO web site. Great for getting text searchable copies2) Google’s patent site. Great for searching…
Article: Film Sanitization Issues
I recently wrote a short article regarding Film Sanitization, the practice of removing objectionable content from a movie without the copyright owner’s consent. Groups remove the sex, violence, nudity, language, drug use,…
News: Feature on Entrepreneur.com
Ok, consider this post shameless self-promotion. Steve Chang and I were recently interviewed by a writer at Entrepreneur.com, and are showcased in an article about playing video games at work. Link to…
News: Virtual World Awards
Well it was really only a matter of time. When an industry gets large enough, we need awards to distinguish the good from the bad. MMOs and Virtual Worlds are the latest…
News: Voice in Second Life
Linden Labs recently added voice capabilities to Second Life. Their beta test went public in March, and commentary has been, for the most part, positive. Voice is a natural extension for MMO…
News: Patent threat against Linux and open source games
(Fortune Magazine) — May 14, 2007: Free software is great, and corporate America loves it. It’s often high-quality stuff that can be downloaded free off the Internet and then copied at will.…
Case: KSR Int’l v Teleflex (S.Ct. 2007) [P]
KSR International Co. v. Teleflex, Inc. U.S. Supreme Court, April 30, 2007 While technically not a video game case, this landmark Supreme Court case just (expectedly) rocked the patent world. The technology:…
New Feature Added: Patent FAQs
People often ask the same introductory questions when they first start seeking patent advice and counsel, and are often concerned about getting billed for the attorney’s time just to learn the answers…
FEATURE: Patent FAQs
Have a question that is not covered here? Send us an email, and we’ll endeavor to keep this FAQ updated. Keep in mind that this is not legal advice, as each scenario…
Technical difficulties resolved.
Ok folks, the technical difficulties appear to be resolved (for now, at least). Sorry to anyone who had trouble with the RSS feed in the meantime… -Ross
News: 2002 IP case statistics
From the April 2007 ABA Journal, citing the U.S. Department of Justice special report: Of the 7,445 vicil intellectual property lawsuits filed in 2002: 140 (1.9%) made it through trial and received…
Case Update: Immersion v. Sony
As everyone knows by now, Sony settled with Immersion for about $150M. So while the primary issues have been decided, there is still a little cleaning up to do. Namely, there was…
Case Update: Perfect 10 v. CCBill
While not directly related to video games, this case may have some applicability to the game world, given the convergence of service providers and MMOs (think Linden Labs). In a solid win…
News: Midway sued for Psi-Ops
As reported on Gamespot: Nearly three years ago, Midway released Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, a third-person stealth-action game and–alongside The Suffering and Roadkill–one of a handful of then-recent original intellectual properties the…