News of the Week; October 7, 2020

GAMES

1. Nintendo wins $2m in lawsuit against Team Xecutor resellers: UberChips.com ordered to cease sale of Switch hack devices and destroy all remaining stock
2. Genuine Enabling Tech’s Lawsuit Alleging Patent Infringement by Nintendo Wii and Switch Products Dismissed
3. Mother and son seeking $5m in latest Joy-Con drift lawsuit against Nintendo: Plaintiff argues platform holder has not done enough to address Switch issue and does not warn about drift in marketing
4. Depicting Randy Orton’s Tattoos in a Video Game Could Be Copyright Infringement–Alexander v. WWE 2K (Eric Goldman)
5. Take-Two Going To Trial Over Yet Another Tattoo Artist Claiming Copyright On Athlete Bodies
6. Epic Games and Apple will head to trial in May 2021
7. What lessons can be learnt from Voodoo’s action against Rollic? | Opinion: Harbottle & Lewis’ Kostya Lobov looks at what the casual games giant’s victory means for fighting clones
8. 20% of Ubisoft staff don’t feel respected or safe at work, reveals internal survey
9. Designer accuses Ember Labs of underpayment, unfulfilled promises: Ember Labs spokesperson says studio has paid all invoices, “never promised a certain salary”
10. Nexus Mods bans political content until after next US presidential inauguration: “We have neither the time, the care or the wish to moderate such things”
11. UK Government launches consultation on loot boxes
12. WBIE head says Rowling is “entitled to express her personal opinion”: Hogwarts Legacy publisher’s David Haddad tells employees anti-trans Harry Potter author “has the right to hold her opinions”
13. The thing about trolls is they regenerate | 10 Years Ago This Month: It’s time to tell the scary story of Edge Games, Tim Langdell, and the trademark dispute that would not die
14. Burger King, Stevenage and my FIFA confusion
15. Rare, Playground Games and Ninja Theory unite for Women of Xbox UK: Rare’s Louise O’Connor discusses the new initiative, which kicks off with a video series that starts today
16. Aaron Greenberg: “Does the price of a game even matter, if it’s in Game Pass?”: Xbox games marketing GM responds to question over whether Microsoft will raise game prices
17. Apex Legends brings cross-play to PS4, Xbox One, and PC next week
18. Download-free demos via xCloud is (somewhere) on Xbox’s to-do list
19. Sony expects PS5 to sell more than 7m units by April: PlayStation president Jim Ryan says “the value is obvious” when it comes to $70 price point for games
20. PS5 will change Sony’s Japanese button standards: Next PlayStation switches menu confirmation button from O to X to bring Japan in line with other regions
21. Astro’s Playroom devs played a key part in the creation of the PS5’s DualSense
22. PlayStation 5 runs cool and quiet, according to initial hands-on reports
23. The first PlayStation 5 teardown reveals some hardware secrets
24. PlayStation 5 teardown offers an up-close look at the next-gen console
25. Has Xbox changed discoverability with its new store?
26. Hardware launches and pre-orders desperately need a shake-up | Opinion: Retailers and manufacturers have failed consumers with the botched, badly-managed launches of consoles and graphics cards in recent weeks
27. Chromecast with Google TV won’t support Stadia until 2021: Google’s new replacement for Stadia-compatible dongle won’t officially have game streaming for several months, but Stadia Android app can be sideloaded
28. Antstream can stream over 1,200 retro games for $10 a month
29. Blizzard delays World of Warcraft’s Shadowlands expansion: Release moved to later in the year for additional polish and balancing
30. Capcom tries again with Monster Hunter Stories 2 — but why?: Capcom slips another quarter into the machine and makes a play for Japan’s kids market
31. Sky: Children of the Light has topped 50 million installs worldwide
32. Starbreeze says Payday 3 development is underway, this time using Unreal Engine
33. Report: Roblox readies to go public in early 2021
34. Roblox’s user-generated game platform could go public at $8 billion valuation
35. Roblox reportedly is preparing to go public: Children’s gaming platform expects an $8 billion valuation
36. Rovio CEO Kati Levoranta will leave the company at the end of 2020
37. Thirdverse secures $8.5m in Series A funding: The Japanese studio, previously known as Yomuneco, is currently working as publisher on inXile’s Frostpoint VR
38. Riot Games shuts Sydney office and scraps OPL esports league
39. Riot Games closes Sydney office: Company confirms ten employees impacted by the closure
40. Report: Call of Duty publisher Actvision Blizzard to shut down French office
41. Activision Blizzard closing France office – Report: Publisher pulling the plug on marketing, customer service and localizing office that had hundreds of employees
42. Thunderful Group acquires UK developer Coatsink for $29.8 million
43. Tencent grabs ‘major stake’ in GTFO developer 10 Chambers
44. Tencent takes “a major stake” in GTFO studio 10 Chambers: Swedish dev from veterans of Payday needed “more muscle” to realise its ambitions for co-op shooter GTFO
45. Genshin Impact censors “Hong Kong” and “Taiwan” in in-game chat: But Niko Partners’ Daniel Ahmad explains why this is common to all Chinese-developed games
46. Genshin Impact becomes biggest international launch for a Chinese game: The free-to-play RPG is the second top-grossing app on iOS in China, only beaten by the Chinese version of TikTok
47. Genshin Impact hit 17m mobile downloads in four days
48. Genshin Impact made $60m in its first week on mobile alone: Sensor Tower MiHoYo’s open-world adventure was the second-highest grossing mobile title worldwide during its launch week
49. Mortal Kombat 11 has topped 8 million sales in under two years
50. I played 15 hours of Baldur’s Gate 3 early access, and I want them back
51. Star Wars Squadrons impressions: A heavy asterisk at launch for PC players
52. Mario’s early levels wear out their welcome in Super Mario Bros. 35
53. Interior Night’s mission to turn non-gamers into gamers: We speak to CEO Caroline Marchal about the nuanced narrative of upcoming Microsoft exclusive As Dusk Falls
54. Some Epic Games Store games can now be purchased through GOG Galaxy 2.0
55. GOG Galaxy 2.0 to sell Epic Games Store titles: The client will offer games that were previously exclusive to Epic’s platform
56. Chat Filtering exits Steam Labs testing, is now a bonafide Steam feature
57. Valve adds chat filter after successful Steam Labs test: The new tool hides hateful language from people you don’t know by default in Steam Chat
58. ‘Resident Evil’ Reboot: Kaya Scodelario, Robbie Amell, Hannah John-Kamen, Neal McDonough & More To Star In Origin Story Adaptation
59. Twitch Reinforces Guidelines Surrounding Terrorist, Violent Extremist Content
60. Facebook Gaming surpassed one billion hours watched in Q3: Twitch viewership cools somewhat after pandemic spike, while YouTube and Facebook continue stready rise
61. Twitch Launches ‘Soundtrack’, A Library Of 1 Million Licensed Songs For Streamers
62. Twitch signs exclusive deal with CohhCarnage: Variety streamer agrees to multi-year pact that will have him livestreaming full-time on the platform
63. Streamer Ben ‘CohhCarnage’ Cassell Re-Signs To Twitch In Exclusive, Multi-Year Deal
64. Activision Blizzard esports CEO Pete Vlastelica is stepping down
65. OWL Commissioner and Activision Blizzard Esports CEO Pete Vlastelica steps down: Vlastelica first took on the commissioner role last year following the departure of Nate Nanzer
66. G-Loot secures $56m in new investment for expansion plans: Swedish esports firm closes a huge round for its democratic esports tournament platform
67. Tilting Point acquires TerraGenesis from Edgeworks Entertainment
68. ‘Star Wars: Squadrons’ Review – The New Top Gun of VR Dogfighters
69. ‘Star Wars: Squadrons’ VR FAQ – Supported Headsets, Comfort Settings, Min Specs & More
70. Google officially ends support for Daydream VR
71. Going in-depth with Nintendo’s augmented reality Mario Kart RC car
72. Niantic launches new Pokemon Go initiative to help small businesses hit by COVID
73. The history of Galloping Ghost, the USA’s largest classic arcade
74. The player-focused design and development of battle royale breakout Spellbreak
75. Hades makes endless struggle entertaining | Why I Love: Lucid Tales co-founders dive into what elevates Supergiant Games’ underworld roguelike
76. The strange flexibility of boundaries in strategy games
77. Push and pull: How to build an in-game economy – Unity Technologies’ Julie Shumaker explains how to knit together the key components of a robust and engaging game economy
78. Blog: What to expect when you’re expecting (a content creator)
79. Blog: Using statistics to design balanced dice
80. Blog: Switch & Steam discount strategies? Here’s some good ones
81. Blog: Notes from the Q&A sessions with Steam
82. Blog: Estimating platform revenues – a discovery conundrum!
83. Blog: Tips and advice for pitching your game to a publisher 
84. Blog: Moving to 170 mini remote offices while maintaining your culture
85. Blog: Should game devs become YouTubers to get (more) successful?
86. Video: Maintaining your mental health while working in games
87. Video: Brenda Romero’s hidden histories of women in programming
88. Video: The data-driven game design of Rainbow Six Siege
89. Video: Working in games with chronic illness
90. Video: Best practices for accessible in-game communication
91. Don’t Miss: Interior Mapping – rendering real rooms without geometry
92. Don’t Miss: The buzzer-beating bug fix that saved Crash Bandicoot
93. Don’t Miss: Spilling data-driven indie marketing secrets with No More Robots’ Mike Rose
94. Don’t Miss: Double Fine’s in-depth postmortem of Costume Quest 2
95. U.S. Patent no. 9,498,706: System and method for providing an enhanced research game mechanic

DIGITAL

1. US House committee says Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook engaged in monopolistic behavior: Investigation recommends stronger antitrust actions, but requires Congressional approval for further action
2. House: Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Google have “monopoly power,” should be split
3. Congress Issues Antitrust Report on Large Tech Platforms
4. Should Big Tech Be Setting the Terms of Political Speech?
5. Step into My Parler: Suspected Russian Operation Targeted Far-Right American Users on Platforms Including Gab and Parler, Resembled Recent IRA-Linked Operation that Targeted Progressives
6. Shaking Up the Internet: An Update
7. Publishers worry as ebooks fly off libraries’ virtual shelves
8. 4th Circuit Finds Jurisdiction Over Foreign Website Operator Who Never Worked in or Visited the United States
9. US Commerce Department Identifies Prohibited Transactions with WeChat But Implementation Delayed
10. Trump Administration’s Bans on WeChat and TikTok Temporarily Enjoined by Federal Courts
11. Further TikTok Developments: D.C. District Court Blocks Commerce’s TikTok Ban
12. Coronavirus misinformation: quantifying sources and themes in the COVID-19‘infodemic’ (SarahEvanega, MarkLynas, JordanAdams, KarinneSmolenyak)
13. A new study shows how Trump and the RNC duped traditional media into covering mail-in voter fraud
14. New Study: Once Again, The Mainstream Media Is A Bigger Problem In Spreading Disinformation Than Social Media
15. Mail-In Voter Fraud: Paper Shows Disinformation Campaign Surrounding Risk Of Voter Fraud Associated With Mail-In Ballots Follows An Elite-Driven, Mass Media Model – Social Media Plays A Secondary Role
16. QAnon shows that the age of alternative facts will not end with Trump
17. Snapchat Has Registered 1 Million Voters, And 65% Of Them Are Gen Z
18. hiQ Labs, Inc. v. LinkedIn Corp.
19. US Labor Department investigates Microsoft’s efforts to improve diversity – Microsoft: “Our continued focus is to work hard to consider and develop the broadest range of qualified candidates for opportunities”
20. Megaupload Lawsuits Remain on Hold Until 2021, Or (Much) Later
21. Congressional Republicans With No Strategy On Pandemic, Healthcare, Societal Problems… Have Decided That The Internet Is The Real Problem
22. Why Are Senate Democrats Helping Move Forward Trump’s Strategy Of Attacking The Internet?
23. Donald Trump Now Wants To Repeal Section 230, Which Will Actually Make The Stuff He Complains About Worse
24. Because Congress Apparently Has NOTHING AT ALL IMPORTANT To Work On, It Introduced TWO MORE Section 230 Bills Yesterday
25. Jim Jordan Releases Yet ANOTHER Anti-230 Bill (Yes Another One)
26. Reps. Gabbard And Gosar Introduce Ridiculous House Companion To Ridiculous Anti-230 Senate Bill From Senator Kennedy
27. Section 230 Preempts Another Facebook Account Termination Case–Zimmerman v. Facebook (Eric Goldman)
28. Content Moderation Case Study: Sensitive Mental Health Information Is Also A Content Moderation Challenge (2020)
29. Content Moderation Case Study: Suppressing Content To Try To Stop Bullying (2019)
30. Thank you for posting: Smoking’s lessons for regulating social media: Former Facebook executives admit they used the tobacco industry’s playbook for addictive products. Perhaps it can also be used to undo the damage.
31. Hiding hate speech: political moderation on Facebook
32. Facebook and Fake News in the “Anglophone Crisis” in Cameroon
33. Facebook bans QAnon entirely, says previous crackdown wasn’t enough
34. Facebook Pulls Trump Ads Connecting COVID-19 to the Acceptance of Refugees
35. Facebook Expands Restrictions on Election-Related Advertising and Prohibits Ads Promoting Militarized Social Movements
36. Facebook’s latest “groups” disaster will only make it more toxic
37. Facebook Internal Memo Reveals Challenges Social Media Companies Face In Protecting Democracy
38. Internet Shutdown: Is It Violation of Fundamental Rights?
39. The (Potentially) Shifting Landscape of Online Marketplace Liability
40. John McAfee arrested, indicted on tax evasion charges, sued for fraud
41. Triller Has Inflated Active User Counts, Former Staffers Say
42. How Amazon hid its safety crisis: Robots. Prime Day. Holiday peak. Internal records show Amazon has deceived the public on rising injury rates among its warehouse workers.
43. If You’re Going To Sue YouTube For Infringement, Maybe First Don’t License Your Music To YouTube Or Setup Fake Accounts To Upload Your Own Works
44. YouTube Revamps Retention Analytics To Give Creators More Data About How Their Videos Perform With Viewers
45. YouTube Music Spins Up Global Charts Based On Video View Count
46. YouTube Music drops monthly fee for Chromecast support
47. 73% Of Brands Are Upping Their Influencer Marketing Spend (Report)
48. Snap Doubles Down On Docuseries, Unscripted Originals With New Shows From Kevin Hart, Loren Gray 
49. David Dobrik’s ‘Dispo’ Raises $4 Million Seed Round From Alexis Ohanian, Vlog Squad Members, More
50. Instagram Expands Shoppable Ads To IGTV—And, Later This Year, To TikTok Competitor Reels
51. How AMC Used Social Video To Keep ‘The Walking Dead’ Fans Living This Summer
52. Spotify Will Now Enable Podcasters To Generate Shareable ‘Promo Cards’ For Social Media
53. How Much Money Are Creators Making On TikTok’s $1 Billion Creator Fund?
54. From selling songs to engineering experiences: exploring the competitive strategies of music streaming platforms
55. Open Access Faces Many Problems; Here’s One That The Indispensable Internet Archive Is Helping To Solve
56. Trapped-ion quantum computer sets new mark for quantum volume
57. Sourcegraph: Devs are managing 100x more code now than they did in 2010
58. Our New Monetization Experiment: Coil & The Web Monetization Protocol
59. Can I keep my .eu domain name after the post-Brexit transition period?
60. Court holds $100 million Kin coin offering violated federal law
61. Form 1040 Cryptocurrency Question is New for 2020
62. Owner Of Bitcoin Exchange Convicted of international conspiracy to commit money laundering and racketeering
63. “Life Moves Pretty Fast”: a decade on from bitcoin, English law confronts cryptoassets
64. Court Rules That Sales of Digital Tokens Were Illegal Unregistered Securities Offerings

A.I.

1. High Court confirms that the class of inventions created by AI machines is not patentable
2. Patents Court Determines Machines Can’t be Inventors
3. High Court Holds that AI Machines Cannot Be Inventors, Further Paving Way for Legislative Phase of the DABUS Saga 
4. Focusing on Value: Viewing AI Through an IP Lens
5. Thaler v Comptroller-General: Part 2 – What now for AI inventions following Thaler?
6. Toyota’s ceiling-mounted robot is like GLaDOS for your kitchen
7. Palantir Presentations Show How The LAPD Is Able To Turn Tons Of Garbage Data Into Ineffective Policing
8. After Years Of Claiming It Doesn’t Use Facial Recognition Software, The LAPD Admits It Has Used It 30,000 Times Since 2009
9. SITREP: With “Skyborg,” Air Force hopes to give pilots a “loyal wingman”
10. The laughing policebot: automation and the end of policing
11. Getting into the engine room: a blueprint to investigate the shadowy steps of AI ethics
12. Artificial intelligence – machine or real contractual partner? 
13. Will AI replace humans? The GPT-3 Guardian op-ed shows the humans have a continuing, but evolving, role.
14. Advising AI Start-Ups 

COMMUNICATIONS

1. What Happened to Canada’s Innovation Agenda?: How Innovation Policy Has Been Sidelined By Cultural Policies and Misplaced Provincial Prioritization of Patents (Michael Geist)
2. Guide to Doing Business in Canada: CASL
3. Mississippi Says AT&T Took $283 Million For A Network It Never Fully Deployed
4. AT&T kills DSL, leaves tens of millions of homes without fiber Internet
5. AT&T offloading DirecTV could be a “fire sale” as company weighs low bids
6. Report Says 20 Million U.S. Broadband Complaints Went Unresolved Last Year 
7. The real risks of 5G
8. Buying Verizon 5G Home is even harder than finding a Verizon mobile 5G signal
9. Verizon Is Still Abusing The Hell Out Of The Word ‘Unlimited’
10. SpaceX has launched enough satellites for Starlink’s upcoming public beta
11. Order Responding to Net Neutrality Court Decision Circulated for Consideration at FCC’s October Meeting 
12. FCC Formalizes Foreign Investment Review Process

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

1.  Fake News, Fake Views and the Parody Exception
2. Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc. (SCOTUS Oral Arguments Transcript, October 7, 2020)
3. Oracle Is Wrong About Having Permission To Reimplement Amazon’s API. But They Shouldn’t Need It.
4. The Supreme Court hears Oracle v. Google tomorrow—here’s what’s at stake
5. Copyright Owner Claims Ownership Over Depicting Emoji Symbols in Multiple Colors–Cub Club v. Apple (Eric Goldman)
6. Does Copyright Literally Protect Source Code Figuratively? 
7. Nikola issues copyright takedowns against critics who use rolling-truck clip
8. Nikola’s Plan To Combat Its No Good, Very Bad Month Appears To Be Using Copyright To Silence Critics 
9. Knowingly Removing Photographer’s Credit Costs Buzzfeed Under DMCA
10. Hugo Boss Opposes Artist’s ‘Be Boss, Be Kind’ Trademark For Merch 
11. Toy Story 4’s Duke Caboom Crashes into Evel Kneivel’s Son 
12. Breaking news: the queen monitors trade mark filings
13. David Dobrik Looks To Be Cooking Up ‘Doughbrik’s Pizza’ Business, Per Trademark Filings 
14. The Fit Kitchen Case and the value of trade marks
15. Supreme Court Settles Long-Standing Circuit Split on Trademark Damages: Willful Infringement Is Not a Prerequisite for Awarding a Trademark Infringer’s Profits
16. Spolar v. Discovery: Court refuses to restrain Discovery from broadcasting documentary about last photograph of Lincoln, finding prior restraint and that plaintiffs failed to establish claim for misappropriation of trade secrets. 
17. DOJ Indictment of Chinese Hackers for Break-Ins at 100 Companies Reinforces The Importance of Protecting Trade Secrets and Implementing Security Protections 
18. Revisiting Supreme Court Nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s Recent Trade Secret Opinion
19. Federal Court of Appeal affirms largest reported Canadian patent infringement award in history
20. Patentability of Computer-Implemented Inventions in Canada – The Amazon Saga Continues
21. Federal Court rejects problem-solution approach, opening field for computer-implemented inventions
22. Challenges for Extended Reality (XR) Companies in Patent Prosecution and Litigation 
23. Lithium-ion battery separators – crucial patent developments
24. GSK v. Teva – Induced Infringement Liability Despite Skinny Label 
25. GSK vs. Teva: Induced Infringement, Skinny Labels and Fat Damages
26. Skinny Labelling on Generic Drugs Does Not Avoid Induced Infringement of Patents Covering Non-Indicated Uses
27. Former Patent Litigator Becomes Federal Judge And Begins Advertising For Patent Trolls To Come To His Court (And They Have In Droves) 
28. US Patent Law Year in Review: October 2019 – September 2020
29. Guide to Doing Business in Canada: Intellectual property
30. Democratising Knowledge: Transforming Intellectual Property and Research and Development
31. Jim Murphy’s Article “5 Areas of Intellectual Property You Should Focus on Now,” Featured in Built In

PRIVACY

1. A decision by the Québec Access to Information Commissioner highlights the importance of compliance with both ‎federal and provincial privacy legislation
2. 40% of data breach records insufficient – Canadian Privacy Commissioner releases findings on data breach register inspections
3. Four Million Downloads and Counting: Everyone Should Install the COVID Alert App (Michael Geist)
4. European Court of Justice Invalidates EU-US Privacy Shield Framework 
5. Mass claims for data breaches: if Lloyd v Google doesn’t open the floodgates then perhaps the DCMS will?
6. Give up Google, don’t hit ‘accept all’: how to fight for your privacy – In Privacy Is Power, professor Carissa Véliz has made a shocking survey of how much intimate data we are surrendering. But she has a plan to fight back
7. Paying ransomware demands could land you in hot water with the feds
8. Biggest Ransomware Attack Yet Crippled U.S. Hospitals Last Weekend
9. U.S. Government Warns Companies of Legal Risk for Paying Ransom to Cybercriminals
10. Palantir, Big Data’s scariest, most secretive unicorn, is going public. But is its crystal ball just smoke and mirrors? 
11. U.S. Government Publishes White Paper Following Schrems II Decision 
12. In the Aftermath of Schrems II, an Irish Court Temporarily Allows Facebook’s Data Transfers to the US to Continue
13. US responds to Schrems II judgment 
14. The Privacy Shield Sunk, but Is There a Life Raft for the Standard Contractual Clauses? Strategies for Transferring Personal Data Across the Atlantic from a Post-Schrems II Europe 
15. Right to privacy: will reliance on WhatsApp messages in misconduct proceedings be a breach of the right to privacy? 
16. What Does the Legislature Have to Show for Its CCPA Amendments in 2020? Not Much 
17. Consumer Reports Study Shows California’s Privacy Law Is A Poorly-Enforced Mess
18. Over 50 Privacy Professionals & Experts Oppose Prop. 24 (Eric Goldman)
19. UK Tribunal To Decide Whether Gov’t Agencies Can Continue To Pretend There’s A Residency Requirement For FOI Requests

CREATIVITY

1. Judge Refuses To Dismiss Batch Of Nicholas Sandmann’s Media Lawsuits In The Laziest Defamation Ruling I’ve Ever Seen
2. Texas Grand Jury Indicts Netflix For ‘Lewd Exhibition’ Of Children In Its Movie ‘Cuties’
3. NY Times Editorial Pages Mess Up Again: Publishes Chinese Official’s Ridiculous Defense Of Stifling Freedom In Hong Kong
4. Court Gives Vanilla Ice Cream False Advertising Claims a Frosty Reception

Jon