Patents
Case Update: MOAEC v. Pandora [P] (April 8, 2009)
April 8, 2009, Chicago — The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin granted summary judgment for Banner & Witcoff’s client Pandora in a patent infringement suit brought by MOAEC,…
Banner & Witcoff Secures Pandora Win
For those Pandora fans out there, I am pleased to report that our law firm represents Pandora in this case. If any of the media who track my blog would like to…
Game show patents…
So I just ran in to Tom Bergeron in the lobby of my office building, and it got me thinking: how many game shows have patent protection? Game shows are games, which…
Update: ADC v. Microsoft et al.
In a previous post, we reported on the filing of this patent lawsuit regarding pay-for-download software over a computer network, e.g., including games. Well it appears that Sony is out of the…
Patent Reform 2009
It appears that congress is again going to try to pass patent reform legislation. Rather than recreate the wheel, and based on other deadlines I have today, feel free to read the…
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…
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.…
Case Update: Nintendo v. Nyko SETTLED
As previously reported, Nintendo sued Nyko for design patent infringement and trademark infringement over the Wii’s nunchuk controller. On Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008, the parties filed a STIPULATION for Dismissal of Action…
Articles about IP in Virtual Worlds
I recently wrote a series of short articles for LinuxInsider regarding IP issues as they arise in virtual worlds and video games. Each article was necessarily short, so there wasn’t room to…
New Case: Motiva v. Nintendo (patent infringement)
Well, it looks like Nintendo has been sued for patent infringement again. This time by Motiva LLC, for infringement of U.S. Pat. No. 7,292,151, which is directed to a “Human Movement Measurement…
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…
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…
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: 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…