Second Life lawsuit settles

Posted by Dan on August 4, 2008

Normally we wouldn’t write a big thing about a lawsuit over Second Life unless it presented a novel legal concern. However, this one features some interesting players in the litigants. Counsel for Sailor’s Cove (a Second Life sailing company) partner Patrick Levitt is Bob Brackman, of Brackman and Brackman. Counsel for the employees involved, is Ross Dannenberg, of Banner Witcoff. Ross, as readers of this site may know, is co-chair of the ABA IP Law Division’s Special Committee on Computer Gaming and Virtual Worlds, which I am also a member. Furthermore, Ross is a member of our panel that will be speaking at PAX 2008 on legal issues facing the gaming industry.

What’s great to see about this case is the settlement. According to the press release from Banner Witcoff, and statements from Mr. Brackman, the settlement and the negotiations were cordial and non-hostile, something that anyone who has worked in trial law for some time can attest to as a pleasant surprise.

According to the Banner Witcoff press release:

The land in dispute is Sailor’s Cove, a collection of twenty-one regions (private islands) within
the virtual world of Second Life. Sailor’s Cove was developed by three parties and designed as a
waterfront community that allows avatars to purchase land, participate in virtual yachting and
sailing events, and become active in the community of residents of Sailor’s Cove.

The property and ownership dispute was between Patrick Leavitt, owner of record of Sailor’s
Cove with Linden Research, Inc., and Izabella Bentham and Tasha Kostolany. While not owners
of record with Linden Research, Inc., Bentham and Kostolany were each publicly acknowledged
within Sailor’s Cove as “Owner and Sailor’s Cove Partner,” and were instrumental in the
development and success of Sailor’s Cove. Patrick Leavitt had subsequently asserted sole
ownership of Sailor’s Cove.

Of note is that the Virtually Blind interview with Mr. Brackman notes that both parties agreed to venue in California. It’s good to see that venue/jurisdictional issues were resolved amicably between the parties as well, as in virtual world cases these can potentially be fearsomely litigious issues (though we don’t actually know too much about the dispute, it may well be that all parties were California residents conducting business in California, making it a non-issue).

In any event, congratulations to both Mr. Dannenberg and Mr. Brackman on the successful settlement of their dispute.

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