News
News/Update: Cloud Gaming
Cloud computing has been a hot topic lately. Just ask Dell, whose application to register the trademark CLOUD COMPUTING was refused because the term is already generic. Amazon, Google, and other service…
News: Sheperd Farey/AP Copyright Dispute Images
This isn’t exactly video game related, so I won’t take up much of your time, but if anyone was looking for a side-by-side comparison of the Shepherd Farey Obama poster next to…
Resource: Free video game course instruction
I don’t normally post non-legal content, but this one is a good resource for budding video game designers: 70+ Open Courseware Links for Game Designers and Developers. Most of the resources appear…
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: Speaking at GDC 2009
I just wanted to take a minute and let everyone know that I will be speaking at GDC 2009 (March 25-27, 2009) this year. I’m not sure which day my presentation will…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…