Shortcuts: Thanksgiving edition

Today’s shortcuts brought to you by the letter J and the website Patent Arcade.

• THQ v. Activision, which we never actually had time to tell you about since it only popped up a week ago, has settled, with THQ dismissing the case with prejudice.
• Nintendo. Patent infringement. AGAIN. This one is Motiva v. Nintendo, over US Patent No. 7,292,151. It appears to be involving the Wiimote, or the sensor bar based on the claims in the ‘151 patent. For those of you interested in following up on PACER, it’s at Motiva, LLC v. Nintendo Co. Ltd. et al., docket 6:08-cv-429, filed Nov. 10, 2008, in the Eastern District of Texas (Tyler Division).

And last week, the USPTO granted the first trademark ever for an avatar in a virtual world. Ross Dannenberg has more:

Registration number 3,531,683 is for Computer programming services, namely, content creation for virtual worlds and three dimensional platforms. The interesting part, however, is the mark itself (pictured at left), which is an actual avatar in the virtual world of Second Life. The mark was registered on the Principal Register, meaning that the mark inherently has secondary meaning as a source of origin of goods and/or services (i.e., the mark is not generic or descriptive).

This is kind of a big deal. Also, this is my last post before VGXPO, so those of you going, I’ll see you there!

Oh and in other news, my Comment first draft is done! After thinking it over, I’m probably not going to post it here until after it gets edited and published, so hopefully by January it’ll be online. However, if you’re interested in seeing an early copy, let me know through the contact form, and I’ll see what I can do.

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A Few Short (And Somewhat Off-Topic) Updates

A few short updates:

• You’ll note there are a couple of new blogs on the blogroll. The newest one is Legal Geekery, a law student run blog, though general interest geekery (and not specifically games).
• VGXPO in Philly is coming up in a couple weeks. For those of you that are going, please get in touch with me through the contact form and I’ll try to meet up with you while I’m there.
• Congratulations those of you who recently took your MPREs!
• I am extremely disappointed in this season’s premiere of Top Chef New York. The characters are simply not as interesting as last season, except for team Euro Duo, who are awesome.
• For anyone interested in picking up Left4Dead on PC via Steam, please leave a note in comments, and we’ll get a game or two on. AFTER the deadline for this comment (less than a week to go!)
• The ECA just published a list on their forums of how to establish a new ECA chapter in your area. I highly recommend you consider starting or joining a chapter in your area, especially if you are an attorney, law student, or other member of the legal profession. We need gamers addressing the law. That was one of the fundamental reasons this site was created, and the ECA can help support that by working to make the law more favorable for gamers.
• I wrote an exclusive for Stratics (where I’m the Network Content Editor) as a preview of Lord of the Rings Online’s expansion The Mines of Moria. Check it out here.

And, that’s all for this shortcut.

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Business Shortcuts 10-3-08

Today’s shortcuts are all about business.

• Microsoft discusses the possibility of restructuring/merging Rare and Lionhead, idea looks unlikely.
• Tecmo and Koei in merger talks, described as an “issue of survival”.
• Koei/Tecmo to form holding company for stock swap to conduct the tens of billions of yen merger. Profits expected to rise by around 1% for Tecmo, and income expected to rise for 24% for Koei.
• Recent stock market troubles will not effect a possible Tecmo/Koei merger.
• Wednesday’s stock market bounce rallied game industry stocks.
• Srsly. Some stocks (Take Two, for one) gained back MORE than they lost, averages between 5% and 10% of total stock value.

Enjoy!

Popularity: 5% [?]

Shortcuts: Maddengate, or how EA screwed retired football players

Thanks Dennis McCauley for poking me on this one. A shortcut for you guys on a developing story. In an ongoing lawsuit between retired NFL players and the Players Association (EA is NOT a party) information is coming to light alleging that EA attempted to screw retired NFL players out of their fair share of income from the Madden series. GamePolitics is covering the story as it unfolds:

• EA Sports obscured identifying information of retired players to skirt licensing payments (documents in link)
• Retired Bills FS John Nixon: “An Open Letter to John Madden” calling on him to support the players.

We’ll keep you updated as this drama unfolds.

Popularity: unranked [?]

7/30 Shortcuts

Another shortcuts from another day. We’ll probably have more on the Scrabulous, Blizzard, and Age of Conan stories in a later segment.

• Facebook pulls Scrabulous from US and UK servers.
• Gamepolitics has the court documents from Hasbro’s prior lawsuits over the game.
• Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) indicted in Alaskan court. The internet may be a series of tubes, but his bank account is a series of oil company transactions.
• Blizzard moves for a permanent injunction in the Glider case. Virtually Blind has the PDF of the motion.
• EA reports a $95 million loss this quarter (better than last year. Most companies post a loss this time in preparation for holiday sales). Smart investors know this is not a bad thing, and EA’s porfolio of upcoming games is as as strong as we’ve seen for any company. Also, Bad Company sells 1.6 million copies.
• Rob Pardo says: Raph Koster is wrong, PC gaming is not dying, it’s evolving. No offense Raph, but Rob’s got a better track record on this one, and the technological state of the PC gaming industry tends to agree with Pardo.
• EA acquires Shawn Fanning’s social networking site. Spore has 33% female fanbase. Battlefield Heros to integrate social networking, and EA to focus on strong launches for Heroes and Spore.
• Nintendo files for injunction in Tokyo District Court against R4 Revolution modchip sales. Gamasutra says the suit is limited only to Japan’s jurisdiction and is not aimed at western sales.
• Age of Conan developer Funcom’s stock drops by half. It’s misleading, because it’s now still above the levels it was shortly before Conan’s launch. This is both a non-issue and a big deal. It’s a non-issue because the stock price boom was the result of the Conan launch, clearly a temporary bubble, and due to correct anyway, and it recovered to a still-higher-than-pre-launch price. It’s a big deal, because it dropped by half, meaning some traders made it big on the stock, and others missed out on a big chunk of change. The drop was precipitated by SOMETHING, in this case, a huge exodus of players due to bugs, balance issues, and lack of end-game content.

That’s all for this edition of shortcuts. Tune in next time for “Son of shortcuts!”

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7/25 Short Cuts

Every now and then we’ll get swamped with news that doesn’t quite merit its own post, and we can combine it into a group posting. We call these “Short Cuts”. Without further ado:

• Microsoft to take a larger cut on better performing XBLA sales as a “marketing fee”.
• EVE Online announces unofficial ISK and Time Card seller has been scamming players. Make sure you buy from CCP’s official retailers for time cards.
• Speaking of RMT, Live Gamer, a legitimate RMT company that is authorized by some MMO’s to conduct official transactions, hires a Finnish  “Virtual Economist” to support their operations. Live Gamer aims to legitimize the RMT trade through stability and regulation.
• Team Ninja head Tomonobu Itagaki increases his demand in his unpaid wages lawsuit against Tecmo to approximately $1.6 million, and has provided evidence that apparently damages claims by Tecmo chief Yoshimi Yasuda that certain bonuses were never promised to Itagaki. Joystick has a picture of the rad-looking Itagaki clad in black leather and dark sunglasses.
• Gamasutra has a post on telecommuting for industry employees that touches on some of the legal aspects involved. (i.e. if you offer it, make it available to ALL employees, document everything, practice proper emailing/communication techniques to avoid temper flare-ups that can lead to employment suits, etc.)

Popularity: unranked [?]