MMOG
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…
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.…
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…
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: 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: 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…
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…
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…
Visit the Patent Arcade in Second Life
I now have a presence in Second Life, on the PG (i.e., ok for all ages) region of Pumori. My XboxLIVE gamertage is Aviator, so naturally keeping with the theme my SL…
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…
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.
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…
Second Life ToS: Leave your patents at home
Ok, I’ve spent the better part of two evenings finishing the campaign mode in Halo 3, so it’s about time to come out of my self-induced Halo 3 fog. A colleague of…
Case Update: MDY Industries, LLC v. Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. et al
MDY Industries, LLC v. Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. et al.United States District Court, District of ArizonaCase No. 2:2006cv02555, Filed October 25, 2006 On October 25, 2006, MDY Industries, LLC (“MDY”) filed a declaratory…