I regret that I have not been around for awhile due to my workload, but I wanted to let everyone know that I’m still keeping an eye on things and hopefully I will be posting something on noncompete agreements soon.
Aside from that, I want to wish our readers the best of luck on the impending bar exam or next week’s MPRE…
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As some of you may have heard, there has recently been a row over some trademark issues involving Tim Langdell, who was recently elected to the IGDA Board. The crux of the issue is that Tim holds a trademark in various uses of the mark “Edge” as used in relation to gaming. Tim has allegedly been aggressive about acquiring and enforcing his trademarks, which have allegedly resulted in at least one iPhone gaming with the word Edge in the title being removed from the Apple Store. Tigsource has compiled a very comprehensive list of articles involving Tim and the use of the mark.
There is now a petition to remove Tim from the board. The petition’s author, well known narrative designer Corvus Elrod, had this to say:
I have started a survey which requires you to enter your IGDA
membership number when you vote. Once we have “yes” votes from 10% of
the membership (about 1400), I will bring it to the board directly and
force them to call a special meeting of the membership to vote on Tim
Langdell’s removal.
Corvus expanded further at Man Bytes Blog:
My feelings about Tim Langdell are of little consequence here, but I do feel like emphasizing that I feel calling his actions “trademark protection” is rather like claiming the aristocracy went on fox hunts to protect the hen house. It may be legal, but to base the financial success of your studio on predatory IP manipulation is ass-hattery of the worst degree. The fact that Langdell’s studio is surviving in this economy without having released a game in well over a decade is astounding. That it can even afford to litagate over the use of the word ‘EDGE’ when the big publishers are closing entire studios rather than suffer thinner-than-average profit margins is a danger to every single developer-independent or affiliated.
This is obviously a huge issue, especially for a very troubled IGDA. There have been recent questions in mainstream blogs and those of several high profile industry members questioning what exactly IGDA is providing to its members. The trademark issue further fans the flames of allegations that IGDA isn’t doing enough, and it’s being talked about by key industry figures, such as IGDA board candidate Darius Kazemi and board member Tom Buscaglia.
To be fair, the petition is not a slam job against Tim: as Corvus states “You’ll notice, I’ve included a “no” vote. I know members who do not wish to vote Tim Langdell off the board. If 10% of the IGDA membership is dead against this, it’s only fair they have a voice too.”
We’ll be tracking this issue further as it develops, and I’m hoping to discuss it at this year’s PAX 2009 Legal Issues in Gaming panel (which you should all attend!).
FULL DISCLOSURE: The author is a student member of IGDA and an IGDA GDC Scholar.
CORRECTION: The author of the petition is Covus Elrod, not Michael Lubker as originally reported.
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Earlier this week, Judge Manuel Real summarily dismissed Guardian Media Technologies’ patent infringement claim against Nintendo. The suit alleged that Nintendo infringed their patents relating to V-chip content censoring technology. Nintendo’s prevailed by countering that while the Wii does have parental controls, Guardian’s patent was limited to movies and TV shows — things that Wii doesn’t offer. Guardian appears to be something of a patent troll — according to Business Week, they’ve sued “a slew” of tech companies after receiving the patents from the original inventor, but only two of the companies have settled. Nintendo was just one of around forty defendants Guardian sued for various patent infringement claims – the cases against thirty-eight other defendants remain ongoing.
UPDATE: In a statement, SVP and General Counsel for Nintendo of America Rick Flamm elaborated slightly. “Nintendo vigorously defends patent lawsuits … At the earliest stages of this case, Nintendo convinced the court to dismiss this case as Guardian’s patent had nothing to do with Nintendo’s products.” The case information, in case anyone is interested, is Guardian Media Technologies Ltd. v. Coby Electronics Corp., 08cv8439, U.S. District Court, Central District of California (Los Angeles).
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GamePolitics is reporting on an AP story that Louisiana governor (and often cited potential Presidential candidate in 2012) Bobby Jindal has signed into law tax breaks to, among others, game development studios to try and bolster production in the state. The action has received praise from the ESA.
Here’s why you shouldn’t care: Bobby Jindal is the governor of Louisiana, and his tax breaks will only affect Louisiana. Not California, not New York, not any other state in the union. Louisiana. Now, you may be thinking “so what, he’s trying to attract an industry into Louisiana.” Problem is, that’s not going to happen.
Louisiana is different than most every other state in the union, because their state legal system has not updated itself to anything remotely resembling the 21st century. Louisiana is the sole state in the union that follows the “civil law” legal system, rather than the traditional common law. The problem with this form of law, is that while common law provides a certain amount of precedent, which can be researched and relied upon, the civil law system is relatively uncertain. It relies upon judges interpreting what the law should be. The difference is most marked in the area of estate law and succession, and to be fair the gap has narrowed with the Uniform Commercial Code. But game developers working in Louisiana have to abide by its law. They’re going to live there, and be subject to its tort laws when they get in a wreck going to work. They’re going to be subject to its estate law when they make a will, or (god forbid) pass away. They’re going to face the state’s antiquated legal system day in and day out, and that is a MAJOR turnoff for attracting skilled developers. Nobody wants to work in a state where you can’t tell what the law is in advance. The secondary issues like the abject poverty surrounding much of the state, inequality in education, jobs, and healthcare, and the blindingly deep corruption reaching nearly every level of the state’s government certainly can’t help.
So, while Bobby Jindal’s announcement is all fine and dandy, it’s a non-starter.
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For those of you not taking the summer Game Design Concepts course that everyone on the internet seems to be taking….why not? As if there weren’t enough reason to, you can study the Legal Issues for Game Developers section that I developed for the course. Here’s a quick snippet.
At this point, some of you may be thinking that by posting your game
to the forum, you run the risk that someone will Steal Your Great Idea.
How can you protect yourself from the threat of someone taking your
basic idea, turning it into a working, sellable game, and leaving you
with nothing?
Remember, ideas are not copyrightable, they’re not
trademarkable, not trade secretable, and both difficult and
prohibitively expensive to patent. You can’t protect them anyway, and
you shouldn’t try — instead you should try to come up with new ones,
and start working on the good ones. Don’t freak out when you see
things like Game Jams, or this course and think “Ian says I should post
my work to the discussion forum, but I came up with a Great Idea(tm)
and I don’t want other people to steal it.” Ideas are commonplace in
games, and the value of your idea is nothing compared to the value of
the implementation of that idea, your expertise and hard work in
developing it into something that’s going to make you real money. But
most importantly, our industry is very lateral, very tight-knit, very
collaborative. You’ll find people sharing their ideas at GDC, doing
collaborative projects between studios, or using inspiration from one
game’s mechanics to improve another. Don’t fight it. That’s the way
things work, and by embracing that open atmosphere, you’ll be far
better off.
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Patent Arcade has a case analysis of the In Game Dollar lawsuit, perhaps more well known as Peons4Hire.com. Though the case settled and therefore doesn’t serve as binding precedent, it makes for a good study of Blizzard’s methods that they’d later use in other cases. Also, Virtually Blind (now defunct) has their own analysis here. Thanks again to the excellent Patent Arcade for the heads up.
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Social game maker Zynga has sued another social game company, Playdom, for trademark infringement over Mafia Wars, Zynga’s popular facebook game. The complaint alleges that Playdom’s advertising for their Mobsters game used the phrase “Like Mafia Wars? Click here to play Mobsters.” but doesn’t display Playdom’s mark anywhere, and is confusing as to whether it is an ad for Mafia Wars or Mobsters. Notably, users can click on Mafia Wars, and a window to install the Mobsters game opens. Zynga is alleging several Lanham Act violations including trademark infringement (confusion) and false advertising. The full complaint can be found here. Thanks Patent Arcade for the heads up.
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