Trademarks
Case Analysis: Sony v. Connectix
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. v. Connectix Corp. 203 F.3d 596 (9th Cir. 2000) I. Background Connectix Corporation created and sold a software program called “Virtual Game Station” (VGS), an emulator of…
Case Analysis: Minsky v. Linden Research, Inc.
Minsky v. Linden Research, Inc. United States District Court for N.D.N.Y. Case No. 1:08-cv-819-LEK-DRH, Settled January 22, 2009 In July 2008, Richard Minsky filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against…
History Repeats Itself
Nintendo of America, Inc. (Nintendo) filed suit yesterday in a Washington district court, accusing an individual, Kevin Niu, of infringing Nintendo’s copyrights and trademarks in its Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii. Specifically,…
ABA IP Section Spring Conference is coming up!
For attorneys, this is the one annual conference that IP lawyers cannot afford to miss. Now in its 25th anniversary year, the Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference of the ABA Section of…
BOOK RELEASE: Computer Games and Virtual Worlds
The Patent Arcade is pleased to announce that a new book co-edited by our own Ross Dannenberg (i.e., me), and partly authored by our own Steve Chang, is now available for purchase…
Coming soon: New book on Video Game IP Law
We’re getting close… Stay tuned for more information about our new book. I am one of the editors, along with others from my committee at the American Bar Association: Computer Games and…
New Case: Eros v. Linden Research
Well, it has finally happened. Someone got so upset that they filed a class action suit against Linden Research, the owner of Second Life. Eros, LLC filed the lawsuit. They are a…
Zynga files four more lawsuits
Zynga, the social game developer, filed many more lawsuits a couple weeks ago. Just as in the other recent lawsuits that Zynga has initiated over the past few weeks, Zynga is again…
VIDEO GAME LAWSUITS
Updated: May 29, 2011 VIDEO GAME LAWSUITS To assist you in your research and review of the cases, this post will serve as a continuously updated index of the cases we’re tracking.…
New Case: Zynga Game Network, Inc. v. John Does 1-5
Zynga Game Network, Inc. v. John Does 1-5 United States District Court for N.D. Cal. Case No.: 3:09-cv-02441-CRB, Filed 6/2/09 Zynga Game Network, whose settlement with CLZ Concepts we just commented…
Case Update: Taser v Linden Research
In an interesting twist, Taser International voluntarily dismissed this case before Linden even answered the complaint. Taser filed a Notice of Voluntary Case Dismissal on May 5, 2009. Because Linden never filed…
New Case: Taser v. Linden Research [T]
I’m short on time today, but Bloomberg reported a new lawsuit filed by Taser against Second Life (via its parent Linden Research Inc.). No sense in recreating the wheel, and Virtual World…
Video game trademark dispute brewing over OCTOMOM…
On April 10, 2009, Nadya Suleman, who became famous in January when she gave birth to octuplets, filed a pair of trademark applications at the USPTO. She wants to use the mark…
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…
CASE SETTLED: Square Enix v. various sword retailers
On February 24, 2009, Square Enix settled another lawsuit. According to its press release, the lawsuit named at least four national wholesalers of unlicensed sword replicas and their principals that have infringed…
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…
Case: Capcom v. MKR (ND Cal. 2008)
Capcom Co., Ltd. et. al. v. The MKR Group N.D. Cal. 2008 (by Shawn Gorman) While relatively short lived, this legal battle provides several insights for both video game producers and their…
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…
Case: THQ v. Activision – SETTLED
Well, as is often the case, the cost to settle far outweighs the cost to litigate to prove a point. It appears that is true here. As we previously reported, THQ sued…
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…