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

When strolling the streets of an online virtual world that allows user-created content, it is not uncommon to see brands that you recognize. A Ferrari may roll past you in the street. The avatar walking toward you may be cushioning its steps with Nike-Swoosh-emblazoned tennis shoes. The virtual jewelry store that you pass may feature a gleaming Cartier necklace in its window. Familiar brands cushion the virtual experience with the trappings of familiar surroundings for the software user. The problem is, chances are these brand owners never created these virtual goods, and the money from their sale likely went into someone else's pockets.
 

• Email This
• Print
• Comments

Let’s start with the basics. Under a typical game development contract, a publisher furnishes the funds required to develop a game to a game developer. Understandably, access to these funds is subject to certain restrictions, expectations and other contractual obligations. Invariably, there is a provision dedicated to the handling of the rights to intellectual property created pursuant to the terms of the agreement.
 

• Email This
• Print
• Comments

In a traditional online game, users are required to abide by the Terms of Use ("TOU"). Companies, cognizant of the fact that not everyone will comply with the TOU, implement various enforcement measures such as automated filters, user-driven complaint systems, or a more involved in-game monitoring system utilizing Game Masters. As the popularity of user-generated content ("UGC") and user-customization has increased, ensuring TOU compliance has become increasingly costly and labor-intensive. Additionally, by granting users the ability to import copyrighted materials such as facial depictions, art, literary works, or music, the inclusion of UGC in online games potentially raises Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") compliance issues. 
 

• Email This
• Print
• Comments

Video games and feature films have a lot in common. Both tell stories and have exciting visuals and music. Although one is "interactive", recent Blu-ray HD discs are now turning linear films into more immersive, interactive experiences. Rights and talent deals for both have likewise followed a path towards convergence with terms and consideration often being negotiated and drafted the same way. Nowhere is this trend more obvious than the increasing popularity of product placement in enhancing the economic value of video games by making the game play more realistic while providing increased marketing value and good will by allowing the game developer and product owner, generally at no out-of-pocket cost, to reach new audiences.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

February 17, 2009 will be one of our most important historic dates. No president will be sworn into office. No one will land on the moon. Instead television in the U.S., as we know it, will simply be turned off. The switch from analogue to digital TV will be thrown at midnight. Many will awake on February 18 to find their beloved televisions don't work.  Welcome to the Digital Age.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

When game designers introduce realistic elements in their games, sometimes unwanted side effects are produced that affect real life. Shawn Foust, head of Sheppard Mullin’s Video Game practice, discusses this Rogue Reality.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

Activision licensed the Gibson trademark and trade dress in November 2006 in connection with Guitar Hero's "custom guitar controller peripheral." Activision paid a one-time fixed license fee to cover the term of the license and Gibson agreed to help promote the Guitar Hero product.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

China's State Administration of Taxation recently announced a tax levy on individual income made through virtual currency transactions, despite a February 2007 ban on the trading of virtual currency.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks