Law of the Level : Video Game Lawyer & Attorney : Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton Law Firm : Intellectual Property, Patents

By Rachel Tarko Hudson

Mobile app developers must now conspicuously post and follow privacy policies just like websites and other commercial online services according to California Attorney General Kamala Harris. On October 30, the Attorney General’s office began sending warning letters to app developers notifying them that they had 30 days to comply. Time is now up. And the consequences are potentially substantial with the law carrying fines of up to $2,500 per download.

• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

As companies are presented with the ever-challenging goal of achieving and maintaining brand recognition, many fashion companies are now attempting to engage consumers in both the real and virtual worlds. Gaming represents one non-traditional avenue that has undergone recent growth, as brands find value in connecting with existing and potential consumers through interactive online means.

• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

By Ryan Lindsey and Nick Setty

In Thorner v. Sony Computer Entertainment America, LLC (Case No. 2011-1114, Feb. 1, 2012) (Moore*, Rader & Aiken (D. Or. sitting by designation)), the Federal Circuit reiterated the prohibition against importing limitations from the specification and reversed a district court construction depending from consistent uses of the disputed phrase in the specification.

• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Financial institutions and currency transactions are highly regulated in the United States. That much is common knowledge. However, game developers may not realize that by creating a system of virtual currency within a game that can be purchased with or redeemed for real currency, they could be opening themselves up to legal issues arising from this morass of federal and state laws, regulations, and rules.

• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Justice Antonin Scalia and his teammates mowed down California’s ban on violent video games with fully loaded First Amendment precedents and barbed retorts to opposing arguments. In doing so, the Supreme Court reinforced a fundamental point: that First Amendment protections do not depend on the medium of communication. Thus, video games are protected speech, and restrictions based on their content will be subject to strict scrutiny.

• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Nintendo of America, Inc. ("Nintendo") faces a new patent infringement lawsuit in the Western District of Washington, regarding the camera lenses included in its Nintendo DSi handheld gaming systems. The lawsuit, filed on May 24, 2011, accuses Nintendo of infringing United States Patent No. 6,888,686, owned by Plaintiffs Milestone Co., Ltd. and Satoshi Do.

• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

In the first part of this article series, we looked at choosing a video game for product placement based on game attributes. Now we begin addressing the details of the branding deal—specifically, deciding how users can interact with the brands within a game. For brand owners, the concern is how in-game treatment of the brand will affect the brand's image. For game developers,  the focus is more on how inclusion of the brand will affect overall game play. Balancing these sometimes-competing interests is the key to reaching an agreement that will benefit everyone involved.
 

• Print
• Comments
• Step 2: Balancing Interests in User Interaction
  ">Share Link

Millions of people around the world play video games on a daily basis. As a result, video games present an amazing marketing opportunity. But how do you identify which game is appropriate for your brand? There is endless variety in the scope and presentation of video games—from vanquishing zombie hoards on your PC, to buying and selling real life locations on your mobile phone, to throwing a game-winning touchdown on your console. When it comes to branding and product placement, it’s important to find the right game to reach your target audience and maximize the value of your investment.
 

• Print
• Comments
• Step 1: Analyzing Attributes of Prospective Partners
  ">Share Link

The rise of social games has changed the face of the gaming industry in countless ways. With lower barriers to entry than traditional game development, new titles are launching essentially non-stop, not only from larger companies, but from a multitude of start-ups as well. 
 

• Print
• Comments
• Share Link

Facebook Credits are here, and they’re sparking quite a bit of debate. Credits are the virtual currency that Facebook hopes third-party game makers will use so that there’s a single, consistent currency across all the games in the Facebook community. But if you’re going to use Credits, you not only have to pay Facebook a 30 percent cut of any transaction you make with the currency, you also have to keep to some pretty stringent terms dictated by Facebook.

This article by Shawn Foust was originally published in the Social Beat. To read the article please click here.

• Print
• Comments
• Share Link

In February 2009, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down California's Violent Video Games Act banning the sale or rental of "violent video games" to minors. While the holding is squarely in line with substantial U.S. Supreme Court precedent requiring parents — not government censors — to decide what is appropriate content for children, the U.S. Supreme Court just granted review. Mixed in with the legal issues are some of the most troublesome themes for free speech protection — minors, sex and violence. The grant of review is therefore unsettling.
 

• Print
• Comments
• Share Link

I’ve spent the better part of the last few months acquainting myself with the intersection between privacy and social games. Things can be a bit complicated.[1] The goal of this article will be to explain the current state of affairs and suggest some options to consider when drafting a privacy policy that touches on social games.
 

• Print
• Comments
• Share Link

If you’ve ever seen clips of Halo avatars discussing how they are stuck in a canyon with the enemy camp,[1] or watched the South Park episode where the main characters play World of Warcraft,[2] then you’ve experienced a genre of film called “machinima.”  The term "machinima" (machine + cinema) generally refers to animated filmmaking within a real-time virtual 3-D environment.[3] To accomplish this, a "machinimator" (machinima + animator) pieces together video game footage to create an independent production that is distinct from the video game itself. Essentially, the machinimator is a digital puppet master who utilizes the environment, design, and characters of a video game to create a separate story. Machinimators normally record their productions in real-time using a capture card (hardware) or video capture program (software). Additionally, many video games now provide an in-game video capture ability, which allows users to easily record their own game footage. 
 

• Print
• Comments
• Share Link

Let's start with the basics. When someone purchases a video game, an end-user license agreement (EULA)[2] details the rights the purchaser has to play and use the game. Additionally, users can often buy optional downloadable content such as map-packs, mini-expansions and the like. Users may also elect to purchase small add-ons to games (such as power-ups, new costumes, or equipment fully capable of being taken off sweet jumps) via microtransactions  For ease of reference, we'll call both categories "DLC" (but we recognize some distinction may be drawn between the two). Purchasing DLC is typically handled in three ways: integrating the transaction into the video game itself, conducting the transaction externally via a game platform, such as video game platform, or through a third-party provider such as LiveGamer or Paypal. When the transaction relies on a third party, there may be a terms of sale (apart from the game developer's EULA) that governs a user's purchase of the DLC. Two distinct legal agreements from two separate companies relating to the same game content creates the potential for conflict. For example, the third party's terms of sale governing the purchase of DLC may be silent on the topic of content ownership or may even conflict with the EULA.
 

• Print
• Comments
• Share Link