GAMES
- Manchester United sues Sega over Football Manager trademark use: Sega and developer Sports Interactive reply that club’s name, logo have been used since 1992 “without complaint”
- Rainbow Six: Siege clone Area F2 has been taken offline following lawsuit from Ubisoft
- The Last of Us Part 2 reportedly banned in the Middle East: Upcoming hit believed to be “banned by the competent authorities” of United Arab Emirates and Saudia Arabia
- Naughty Dog uses new Twitter feature to block Last of Us Part II spoilers
- FTC Settles with Digital Game Company Over Allegedly False COPPA Safe Harbor Claims
- G2A confirms stolen game key sales, pays $40,000 to Factorio devs
- G2A to pay Factorio dev $39,600 after allowing illegal game key sales
- Hackers infect multiple game developers with advanced malware
- First Amendment May Protect Use of Trademarks As Artistic Expression: AM General LLC v. Activision Blizzard, Inc. et al.
- EA and NFL to extend partnership until 2025: Madden publisher could have exclusivity for football simulation games until 2026 if series “achieves certain revenue goals”
- EA is releasing the source code for Command & Conquer: Red Alert and Tiberian Dawn
- EA releasing source code for Command & Conquer and Red Alert: Code will go open source alongside Remastered Collection next month
- Nintendo Escapes Digital Pre-Order Dispute in EU
- A Place Where We Can Be Together: Animal Crossing has become a place for weddings and graduations
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons sold 3.6m digital units in April – It’s now the top Nintendo Switch title in lifetime digital sales and digital revenue
- Game Discoverability & The Nintendo Switch: Where We’re At
- COVID-19: Video games good for mental health during pandemic, says U of S prof
- NPD: US console sales in April up 163% to $420m – Video games hardware and software generated $1.5 billion last month, making it the biggest April on record
- Report: Video game sales increased by 73% in April, setting new records for the month (NPD Group)
- Worldwide digital games market: April 2020 – Game spending totaled a record-breaking $10.5B in April 2020, showing the continued strength of the medium during the COVID-19 crisis.
- U.S. console-hardware spending hits mammoth $420 million in April
- App Annie: Mobile gaming will widen its lead over console and PC titles in 2020
- Nexon CEO: COVID-19 has spotlighted gaming’s importance – Owen Mahoney suggests that gaming’s resilience in the face of pandemic is reflective of its broader role within entertainment
- The giants of the video game industry have thrived in the pandemic. Can the success continue?
- How COVID-19 is taking gaming and esports to the next level
- Don’t expect huge change in the post-COVID industry | Opinion: Expectations of radical change in the wake of the pandemic are overblown — in-person working will remain the default paradigm
- Why games firms are ready to go back to the office | Podcast: We discuss recent comments from Satya Nadella and Strauss Zelnick, plus PlayStation Now vs Xbox Game Pass
- As traffic hits all-time high, Jackbox adjusting to dev’ing from home
- The IGDA debuts standards, reporting system to curb bad industry behavior
- IGDA: “We’re not looking to call people out — we’re looking to improve the industry” – Renee Gittins on the IGDA’s push to tackle crunch, diversity and more with a database of reported bad behaviour
- UK Charts: Maneater debuts at No.6 as Nintendo dominates: Animal Crossing and Mario Kart claim the top two positions
- Seven Deadly Sins push Netmarble Q1 revenues up – The Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross became the mobile publisher’s second biggest game less than a month after worldwide launch
- How the Dauntless community taught Phoenix Labs about trust: Phoenix Labs’ Nick Clifford explores the value of building lasting relationships within your community, and how to get there
- Amplifier Game Invest acquires Italian developer DestinyBit
- Little Nightmares has sold over 2 million copies worldwide
- Don’t expect next-gen console launches in China anytime soon | Opinion: The suspension of the PlayStation Store in China underlines the problems that Sony and Microsoft continue to face, says Apptutti’s Daniel Camilo
- Stadia exclusivity pushes PS4, Xbox One versions of Serious Sam 4 into 2021: Croteam’s upcoming shooter will launch on Google’s streaming service and Steam in August
- Xbox Family Settings app will help parents manage their kids’ gaming habits
- Xbox boosts responsible gaming strategy with Family Settings app: The platform holder discusses the evolution of its safety ecosystem and the new family features developed for its app
- After some high-profile opt outs, Nvidia GeForce Now swaps to an opt-in library
- Naughty Dog tests new Twitter feature to limit The Last of Us Part 2 spoilers: PlayStation studio cuts off replies following social media abuse over upcoming blockbuster
- Gamestream raises $3.8 million to grow its B2B-focused cloud gaming platform
- Gamestream raises €3.5m to build up B2B cloud gaming technology: Eponyme Partners leads investment round in turnkey cloud gaming service
- Game companies in Spain to benefit from $21.9 million in protective financing
- Spanish game devs to benefit from €20m in government finance: Culture industries hit by COVID-19 pandemic can apply for financing on “beneficial” terms
- Italy announces fund to support country’s game studios during COVID-19 crisis
- Italian government approves €4m fund for games developers: Trade body IIDEA’s First Playable Fund will offer up to €200,000 per prototype
- Slovakian games industry has nearly doubled in size since 2016: Fledgling sector expected to turnover €55 million in 2020
- CD Projekt’s market cap rivals Ubisoft — but not for much longer | Opinion: Polish publisher is riding high on The Witcher and Cyberpunk, but Ubisoft is about to emerge from a year of uncertainty with five AAA launches
- Tencent will be “taking the System Shock franchise forward”: OtherSide Entertainment’s role on the third game unclear after deal with the Chinese publisher
- Tencent acquires 20% stake in Marvelous, Inc.
- Tencent acquires 20% stake in Story of Seasons dev Marvelous for $65 million
- Tencent takes 20% stake in Marvelous for $65m: Investment from Chinese giant will enable Story of Seasons developer to build new and existing IP
- PlatinumGames dispels rumors that Microsoft is buying it – Atsushi Inaba: “That conversation has not come to our doorstep at all”
- Cheating in Esports tournaments – legal arguments for discouraging bad players
- Audi parks driver for using a ringer in charity esports race
- League of Legends putting ads on the playfield: Viewers of official esports matches will see Mastercard, Alienware, other brands featured on in-game banners
- The E-Sports and Gaming Industries Offer Vital Tools to Musicians in the Wake of COVID-19
- Ninja Launches Star-Studded, Six-Week ‘Fortnite’ Tournament On His Mixer Channel
- Ninja Teams With Killer Merch For Clothing Brand Relaunch, ‘Fortnite’ Capsule, Future Streetwear Drops
- Amazon Games and Bandai Namco are bringing a free Pac-Man game to Twitch
- Twitch signs three more exclusivity deals with top streamers: Streaming platform wars escalate as Summit1G, Dakotaz and JoshOG commit to multi-year partnerships with Twitch
- Twitch Inks Exclusive Streaming And Appearance Deals With Summit1G, Dakotaz, JoshOG
- Twitch Launches New Corporate Channel Dedicated To Gaming News, Event Coverage, More
- Fortnite is morphing into a movie theater with help from Christopher Nolan
- Christopher Nolan Premieres ‘Tenet’ Trailer Inside Fortnite, With Another Film Arriving In-Game This Summer
- With Theaters Closed, The Trailer For Christopher Nolan’s ‘Tenet’ Debuts In Fortnite Instead
- CAA Signs Facebook Gaming Creator Jonna Mae (Exclusive)
- Markiplier And Jacksepticeye’s Clothing Brand Cloak Digs Up ‘Minecraft’ Partnership
- Minecraft Dungeons review: A smashing good Diablo clone for any age
- Minecraft Dungeons | Critical Consensus: Mojang is commended for making a kid-friendly action-RPG, but critics question its value for more experienced players
- Analyst speculates on Grand Theft Auto release from Take-Two marketing spike: Publisher refutes speculation, saying unusually high marketing commitments for fiscal 2024 are to external parties
- AR Pokemon will soon be able to hide behind real-world objects in Pokemon Go
- Niantic adds ‘reality blending’ to Pokémon Go to make your virtual pals even more realistic: A new AR feature to make pokémon more believably blend with the environment
- Magic Leap raises $350m after mass layoffs: But augmented reality firm withdraws notice regarding potential redundancies for remaining staff
- Magic Leap withdraws conditional layoff notices after raising $350 million
- Why it took five years to build Lego Super Mario: “The only brief was: do something that only these two companies could do together”
- Dread X Collection: Evoking Kojima’s PT in context, not content: Dread XP’s Ted Hentschke says Silent Hill teaser and horror film anthologies inspired his approach to indie horror game dev
- How does a hit like Katana Zero change things for a creator?: Juggling multiple projects helped produce Justin Stander’s breakthrough hit, but he’s now looking forward to creating one thing at a time
- An extensive look at Maxis’ short stint in serious simulation games
- Don’t Miss: A classic game postmortem of Westwood Studios’ Command & Conquer
- Don’t Miss: Designing the Elusive Targets system in 2016’s Hitman
- Don’t Miss: A postmortem look at how Blizzard built Diablo II
- Video: A new strategy for narrative desigers
- Blog: Narrative vs. gameplay – A toolbox for harmonious coexistence
- Blog: Demystifying C#’s under-utilized superpower for game development
- Blog: Launch day depression (and why i’m over it)
- Blog: Highlights of global accessibility awareness day 2020
- Blog: Why new players matter to indie developers
- Blog: Creating stronger bonds between players and NPCs through group conflict
- Game Tech Deep Dive: Gears Tactics – When art meets scalability
- U.S. Patent no. 10,315,119: Video game with concurrent processing of game-related physical objects
- “Abstract Assertion of Breadth” Does Not Prove Non-Enablement: Patent on method of animating faces invideo games
DIGITAL
- ‘Trump’s executive order expected to target Twitter, Facebook and Google
- President to Unveil Executive Order to Address CDA Section 230 Protections
- Newsweek Publishes Facts Optional, Wronger Than Wrong, Piece About Section 230
- So Wait, People Really Think The Barr DOJ’s Investigation Into Google Is In Good Faith?
- Why Content Moderation Codes Are More Guidelines Than Rules
- Proposed bill would ban microtargeting of political advertisements: Just because ads can be targeted to individuals doesn’t mean they should be.
- Facebook Pays Multimillion Dollar Penalty in First Case in Canada to Subject Privacy Policies to Misleading Advertising Laws
- Facebook Executives Shut Down Efforts to Make the Site Less Divisive: The social-media giant internally studied how it polarizes users, then largely shelved the research
- Bombshell report: Facebook has known that it is fomenting extremism for years — and refuses to stop
- Plaintiffs Push For Preliminary Approval Of $550 Million Settlement In Facebook Privacy Class Action
- Grandmother ordered to delete Facebook photos under GDPR: Woman must delete photographs of her grandchildren posted on Facebook and Pinterest without their parents’ permission, a court in the has ruled.
- Facebook launches independent “Oversight Board” for hate speech, harassment and privacy
- Mr Zuckerberg, Tear Down My Wall
- Facebook workers get remote work option—but it could come with a pay cut
- Former NSO Employees Says The Company Impersonated Facebook To Deploy Malware
- Twitter’s first fact-check on President Trump calls out “false claims”
- Trump Is a Problem That Twitter Cannot Fix: When a duly elected president is bent on spreading misinformation, tech companies can rein him in only so much.
- Twitter Grapples Anew With Its Trump Conundrum: The social media company came under fire — again — for not removing Mr. Trump’s posts that contain falsehoods.
- Trump, Twitter, And Free Speech
- When The Problem Isn’t Twitter But President Trump
- Delayed implementation but the UK Government remains committed to regulating online harms
- Neighbouring rights: interim measures imposed on Google in the press sector
- Democrats want to restrict political ad targeting ahead of the 2020 election: Time is running out for new rules to apply to this election
- The Boogaloo Movement Is Not What You Think
- Keeping up with the Kardashians in “Kuarantine”
- The FTC: Influencing the Future of the Influencers
- Deletion Of Comments Criticizing Chinese Government Was A Contextual Error, YouTube Says
- YouTube auto-deletes comments with phrases critical of Chinese government
- YouTube Is Considering Letting Creators Self-Limit The Reach Of Their Videos To Lessen Harassment
- ViacomCBS Snaps Up John Krasinski’s YouTube Web Series ‘Some Good News,’ Will Produce Future Episodes With New Host
- How Does John Krasinski’s Newly Sold ‘Some Good News’ Stack Up Against Late-Night Shows?
- U.K.-Based YouTube Prankster Morgz Signs With A3 Artists Agency (Exclusive)
- Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 5/25/2020
- YouTube Kids App Arrives On Apple TV
- BuzzFeed’s Latest ‘Unsolved’ Season Scares Up Record YouTube Traffic
- Netflix Cancels ‘Terrace House’ Production After Death Of Star Hana Kimura
- Instagram Finally Brings In Monetization For (Some) Creators With Purchasable Badges, IGTV Ads
- Amid Pandemic, Target Says It’s The First Mass Retailer To Launch Shoppable Instagram Posts
- SDNY: Instagram Sublicense Protects Against Liability for Embedding of Public Posts
- Addressing Possible Limits of COPPA Safe Harbors
- Insights: Will Apple Plusing Up Its Streaming Service Set Off Another Round Of Hollywood Consolidation?
- Fanbytes Launches ByteHouse, TikTok’s First U.K.-Based Creator Collective
- Fullscreen Looks Beyond YouTube For Latest Fully-Managed Talent Signings
- Digital News Network ‘The Young Turks’ Launches Twitch Channel
- We Lose A Lot When Podcasts Go Closed Instead Of Open
- Intel acquires Rivet, maker of Killer Wireless-AC gaming Wi-Fi gear
- Crypto hedge funds struggle to recover from “bloodbath”
- Gears of war: When mechanical analog computers ruled the waves
- Privacy and Zambonis in the Age of COVID-19: My Ian Kerr Memorial Lecture (Michael Geist)
A.I.
- After watching 50,000 hours of Pac-Man, Nvidia’s AI generated a playable clone
- The Intersection of Artificial Intelligence, COVID-19, and Copyright
- Recent FTC Guidance on the Use of Artificial Intelligence and Algorithms in the Age of COVID-19
- A Neurophilosophy of Big Data & Civil Liberties, and the Need for a New Social Contract
- Uncovering the secrets of Alien: Isolation’s AI
COMMUNICATIONS
- Looking at Changes to the FCC’s Public Notice Requirements for Broadcast Applications
- FCC to Consider Exemption of TV Broadcast Internet Services from Broadcast Ownership Rules and Regulations for ATSC 3.0 Non-Broadcast Services
- FCC Issues NPRM Aimed at One-Ring Scam Phone Calls
- Selective decoupling: phasing out domestic deployment of Chinese telecoms technology
- Team Telecom emerges from shadows and FCC cracks down on Chinese telecoms companies
- Making Internet service a utility—what’s the worst that could happen?
- New Study Tries, Fails, To Claim Community Broadband Is An Inevitable Boondoggle
- The FCC’s ‘Contest Rule’ and how it may affect your sweepstakes
- AT&T still refuses to kill misleading 5GE network icon for 4G service
- AT&T Won’t Stop Lying About ‘Fake 5G’
- Verizon Tries To Temper 5G Enthusiasm After Report Clearly Shows US 5G Is Slow, Lame
- OpenSignal compares 5G experiences across ten major carriers
- Legal challenge to OFCOM’s 5G network auction
- Let’s Talk About ‘Neutrality’ — And How Math Works
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- Clorox v Chloretec: The Application of Vavilov in the Trademarks Context
- Chalk One Up to the Knock-Off
- Pencil Shaped Chalk Holder Is a Non-Copyrightable Idea
- Led Zeppelin‘s Stairway to Heaven found not to infringe copyright in Spirit’s instrumental, Taurus
- The Second Circuit Affirms the Dismissal of Copyright Claims against Seinfeld over Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee
- Second Circuit Limits Copyright Damages To Three Years Preceding Suit
- Copyright Damages Limited to Three Years Before Lawsuit Filing
- Paparazzi Suit Victims Try Unconventional Plays
- And the winner of the prize for best legal click bait headline from the NYT so far this year is …
- How A Feud Among Wolf-Kink Erotica FanFic Authors Demonstrates What The Copyright Office Got Wrong In Its DMCA Report
- Jerry Seinfeld Gets To Keep Driving Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee*
- Justices form unique alliances in holding Georgia’s annotated code not protected by copyright; Thomas dissent presses for closer review of precedent
- U.S. Supreme Court: States Cannot Copyright Legal Code Annotations
- Eighth Circuit Holds Business Information Database Copyrightable, Affirming $11.2 Million Jury Verdict
- CRS Examines IP Rights Abroad, Considers State Sovereign Immunity in Copyright Suits
- The rental of cars fitted with radio receivers does not constitute an act of unauthorised communication of musical works to the public (case c-753/18)
- Copyright Office Finds Aspects of the DMCA “Unbalanced” in Favor of Online Service Providers
- Designs and copyright protection: UK drifts closer towards Europe
- Stretching Copyright: Protecting online fitness workouts
- Lack of evidence of non-use and confusion result in POKEWORKS trademark remaining on the register
- Three Point Shot: Jordan’s Last Dance in Trademark Dispute Scores Big in Chinese Top Court
- Some Brands Have All the Luck
- US Supreme Court Rejects ‘Defense Preclusion’ in Trademark Suit
- Supreme Court Clarifies Concept of Defense Preclusion Through Lucky Brand Trademark Battle
- Supreme Court Rules Defense Not Barred in Subsequent Action Involving Different Trademarks, Conduct and Claims
- Recent Federal Court Decision Reaffirms Exceptions to First Sale Doctrine for Brands Bringing Trademark Claims Against Unauthorized Resellers
- Tax Service’s Registered Trademark’s Suggestiveness Presented Jury Question
- Replacing Rogers Test with “Genuine Artistic Motive” Test Doesn’t Change the Finale in Dispute Over WILD AMERICA
- The Impact of Romag Fasteners Inc. v. Fossil Inc.: Willfulness Is Not Required For An Award Of Profits In Trademark Infringement
- What the Supreme Court’s Romag Decision means for trademark infringement and damages
- ‘Maybe’ Is Not Enough: Foreign Business Fails to Obtain Declaratory Judgment for Potential Use of Trademark
- Third judgement in Sky v SkyKick – Louise Foster and Sarah Darby provide some take-away thoughts
- Tiger King Trademark Troubles
- A Lesson From Tiger King: Corporate Separateness
- General Court “shades” some light on 3D trademark registration
- Can you trademark a design in the EU?
- The Intersection of Trademarks and Open Source
- Trademarks rocket while designs level off: UKIPO releases latest annual filings data
- Pepper trumps Broccoli: EPO finds products produced by essentially biological processes are not patentable
- A Dynamic Reversal by the EPO’s Enlarged Board of Appeal
- Joint Inventorship Claim for Online Dating Patent Ends in Heartbreak, Attorneys’ Fees Award
- Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality Litigation Update: AR Design Innovations Litigations
- Determining the Article of Manufacture in Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Design Patents
- Design Patents: An Underutilized Tool for Protecting Sporting Goods
- Rise in extended reality technology patents suggests market revival
- Common Patent Misconceptions – Myth #3: My idea is too obvious for patenting.
- Clarifying the patentability of medical use inventions in China
- Intellectual Property Issue-Spotting: Common Themes in Recent Ad Campaigns
- Federal Circuit Patent Update
- Protecting intellectual property in the fashion industry – debunking the myths – PART ONE: copyright and patents
- Protecting intellectual property in the fashion industry – debunking the myths – PART TWO: Unregistered Design Rights and Registered Designs
- Protecting intellectual property in the fashion industry – debunking the myths – PART THREE: Registered and Unregistered Trade Marks
- Copyright protection of fashion designs in Spain after Cofemel
PRIVACY
- Facebook Pays Multimillion Dollar Penalty in First Case in Canada to Subject Privacy Policies to Misleading Advertising Laws
- Just turning your phone on qualifies as searching it, court rules
- After FBI Successfully Breaks Into IPhones, Bill Barr Says It’s Time For Legislated Encryption Backdoors
- S-Town Podcast Lawsuit Settled – Reminder on Getting Releases from Podcast Subjects
- Banks Get Payout From Equifax Hack While Consumers Still Wait For Compensation
- The Grubman Ransomware Attack and What It Means for the Cyber Risks That You May Face
- Senate Talking Points Say Warrantless Collection Of Internet Use Data Keeps Terrorists From Killing Us
- Digital Media and the Right to Be Forgotten
- Court Tells Grandma To Delete Photos Of Grandkids On Facebook For Violating The GDPR
- Yes, This Site Uses Cookies, Because Nearly All Sites Use Cookies, And We’re Notifying You Because We’re Told We Have To
CREATIVITY
- FTC Sues Negative Option Marketers
- Judge Dismisses Half-Baked False Advertising Claims Against Ghirardelli
- Judge Sends Devin Nunes’ SLAPP Suits Against CNN And Washington Post Off To Their Proper Venues
- The Law of Defamation and Political Advertising Argued in Trump Suit Against Wisconsin TV Station
- Bakker Claims Coronavirus Prosecution Attacks His Faith
- Kansas City penguins delight in their first art history lesson
Jon