As a previous Wilson Sonsini Alert reported, Snail Games USA Inc. and Wildcard Properties LLC (collectively, “Snail”) sent a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice to Valve Corporation (Valve) in order to...more
Many video games are marketed on the photorealism of their imagery and graphics. However, depending on the depiction, developers and publishers may need to worry about the underlying intellectual property rights in that...more
Who owns the family video game console? The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California recently held that the parents do, even if they don’t play it....more
Investors in technologies and services for the Metaverse hope that a significant portion of the existing lucrative electronic gaming market will migrate to Metaverse platforms. Game companies regularly rely on the sale of...more
On May 17, 2022, Plaintiff Y.H. brought claims against Blizzard Entertainment making two sets of allegations: first, that booster packs in the game Hearthstone constitute unfair competition or unlawful gambling; and second,...more
Wilson Sonsini provides extensive and cutting-edge legal services for innovators, technology pioneers, and disruptors. As part of our focus on emerging technologies, our attorneys are publishing a series on applying and...more
On April 28, 2022, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California granted the defendant's motion for summary judgment, holding that, taking facts in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, defendant...more
In recent years, there has been an increase in putative class actions alleging that game developers, game publishers, and even platforms should be liable for alleged harms flowing from loot boxes in mobile or other electronic...more
When you publish electronic software, you frequently worry about copyright infringement. What if your game used sounds, graphics, text, or code from another game? If a competitor believes your game violates copyright, it...more
Imagine you operate a website. Another website posts an image or video that you want to discuss on your site. In most circumstances, you cannot simply copy and repost that content without obtaining a license, because someone...more
9/21/2021
/ Amazon ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Litigation ,
Intellectual Property Litigation ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
New York ,
Online Videos ,
Photographs ,
Trademarks ,
Websites
Normally, parties become indebted to each other through an express contract. But you may become liable to pay a bill from a vendor simply because you failed to dispute that bill within a "reasonable" time. How? Through a...more
What Does It Mean to "Buy" Digital Content? On August 13, 2020, David Andino sued Apple Inc. (Apple) in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California for violations of three California state laws: 1)...more
In the Pokémon franchise of role-playing video games, players travel the world in search of hidden Pokémon. In recent litigation, the Pokémon Company International, Inc. (the Pokémon Company) undertook a similar quest: to...more
On July 2, 2021, dotesports reported that the Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division was investigating Overwatch League (OWL) over its soft salary cap policy aimed at discouraging excessive team spending. OWL is an...more
Nintendo of America received an eye-popping award of $2.1 million in statutory damages against game pirate Matthew Storman from the United States District Court for the Central District of California on May 26, 2021. The...more
6/16/2021
/ Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Litigation ,
Copyright Registration ,
Gaming ,
Intellectual Property Litigation ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks
On December 8, 2020, the Supreme Court heard argument in Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid, a case addressing a split among federal circuit courts as to what constitutes an "automatic telephone dialing system"—often referred to as an...more
12/11/2020
/ ATDS ,
Auto-Dialed Calls ,
Certiorari ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Data Storage ,
Facebook ,
Facebook Inc v Duguid ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
Random or Sequential Number Generator ,
SCOTUS ,
Split of Authority ,
TCPA
On April 13, 2020, the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), the self-regulatory industry group that has been rating games1 since 1994, announced that it would create a new “Interactive Element”—the term ESRB uses to...more