![[firm] blog logo](/wp-content/themes/haynesboone2012/images/firm_header.jpg "Blogs of Haynes and Boone, LLP")
>NFL Retirees Suing EA Over Madden
>Electronic Arts, Inc. is again feeling the pressure regarding its sports-based video games, this time thanks to a class action centered around its “Madden NFL” video game franchise. The complaint was filed in the District Court for the Northern District of California on Thursday, July 29, 2010, by former Cincinnati Bengal and Tampa Bay Buccaneer Michael “Tony” Davis, on behalf of himself and about 6,000 former NFL players. It claims that EA is intentionally pilfering the players’ publicity rights under California law, through the unauthorized use of the players’ likenesses to recreate over 140 NFL teams of the past. Specifically, the complaint states that older versions of Madden NFL included player profiles for each “player” on a “vintage” team featured in the game, such profiles including descriptions of the players’ positions, number of years of NFL experience, physical characteristics, and relative skill level in different facets of the game. These… Continue Reading
>Nintendo Settles Wii Remote Claims; "Rock Band" Defendants File to Advance Proceedings
>The end of October brought a flurry of legal activity relevant to two of the more notable segments of the current generation of video game technology: Nintendo has finally settled out of a U.S. International Trade Commission investigation concerning its Wii Remote, and the game developers and retailers that were sued by Gibson Guitar Corporation over the popular Guitar Hero and Rock Band games have made a move to dispose of Gibson’s remaining infringement claims. On October 5, the administrative law judge presiding over the ITC’s investigation of the Wii Remote issued an initial determination (ITC court ruling), later upheld by the Commission, that the settlement reached by Nintendo and Hillcrest Laboratories Inc. satisfactorily disposed of the dispute between the parties. Hillcrest, a developer of home entertainment technologies, claimed that the operation of Nintendo’s Wii Remote in combination with the Wii video game console infringed a collection of Hillcrest patents… Continue Reading
>Rights of Publicity: Its in the game
>The law surrounding an athlete’s right of publicity is fluctuating faster than Brett Favre’s retirement plans, and game companies ought to be paying attention. This week, Sam Keller, a former college quarterback, filed a class action in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against Electronic Arts and the NCAA for using college athletes’ images and attributes in EA’s line of NCAA video game titles. The right of publicity is the right of a person to control commercial use of his or her name, image, likeness, or some other identifying aspect of identity. According to the lawsuit, there are close similarities between real-life college athletes and the virtual athletes in EA’s games. “Electronic Arts matches the player’s skin tone, hair color and often even a player’s hair style…” The complaint also alledges that EA’s virtual athletes are depicted with unique accessories, such as wristbands, glasses, visors and… Continue Reading
>Activision and Gibson Settle
>Activision and Gibson Guitar have settled the remaining issues in their ongoing dispute in California. A few months ago, the judge had ruled that Guitar Hero did not infringe Gibson’s patent, and now the parties have taken care of the remaining elements to the case, bringing the California matter to a close. However, Gibson has separately sued all of the major retailers that sell Guitar Hero for patent infringement, as well as Viacom and Electronic Arts (who market and distribute Rock Band). It remains to be seen what Gibson will do with those cases. Additionally, the re-exam of the patent in the U.S. Patent Office is ongoing. So, things are not completely done…
>To DRM or not to DRM
>The FTC recently held a “Town Hall” meeting to address the use of Digital Right Management (DRM) technologies on March 25, in Seattle. Several consumers groups, including the Entertainment Consumer’s Association (ECA), were there to push for better disclosure of DRM on game packaging and better communication between gamers and game publishers on the issue of DRM. You can check out the ECA’s website, where you will see an attempt to outline a set of standard DRM rights for consumers and for copyright owners. My two favorite PC games of 2008 were World of Goo and Sins of a Solar Empire. What is unusual about these two games is that neither of them are packaged with conventional DRM restrictions. 2D Boy, the publisher of World of Goo, reasoned that “people who pirate our game aren’t people who would have purchased it had they not been able to get it without… Continue Reading
Tag RSS