Posted 11/12/12 10:06 am EST by Charles Webb in Legal Action, News, Xbox 360
As the five-year court case between Epic Games and "Too Human" developer Silicon Knights winds down, it looks like the Denis Dyack's company's future is in doubt. After having to pay out $4.5 million back in May (and another $4.7 million in court fees) for breach of the Unreal licensing agreement, Silicon Knights will now have to destroy all code which used Epic's engine as well as initiating a complete recall of all unsold copies of "Too Human" and "X-Men: Destiny."
Posted 7/24/12 6:00 pm EST by Charles Webb in Android, Legal Action, Op-Ed, PC, Xbox 360
Say you're a Luxembourg, Germany-based company just sitting on a patent for a "system and method for preventing unauthorized access to electronic data." While that's not too specific, and while you haven't actually built anything with said nebulous technology, that's not going to stop you from lobbing lawsuits at the likes of EA, Square Enix, and Microsoft last week. Oh, and Mojang's Minecraft, which was released on Android devices recently.
That's the story of Uniloc, who is hitting up the above companies for patent infringement damages.
Read on about how a company that has produced nothing concrete in its entire existence is attempting to sue its way to big dollars.
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Posted 2/3/12 1:00 pm EST by Charles Webb in 3DS / DS, iPhone / iPad, Legal Action, News, PC, PS Vita, PS3, Violence, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360
Oklahoma House Democrat Will Fourkiller introduces a 1% surcharge on all Teen-rated and up games sold in his state to combat childhood obesity and bullying.
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Posted 1/30/12 4:36 pm EST by Charles Webb in Legal Action, News, PC
A proposal is on the table which could limit minors from being online for more than three hours consecutively.
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Posted 1/25/12 12:00 pm EST by Charles Webb in 3DS / DS, iPhone / iPad, Legal Action, Mac, News, PC, PS Vita, PS3, vita, Wii U, Xbox 360
The Syndicate reboot is one of the high-profile titles that was recently banned under the current classification system
After a string of outright bans, Australia is considering a modification to its notorious classification system to allow mature games to be legally sold in their country.
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Posted 1/10/12 5:00 pm EST by Charles Webb in Legal Action, News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Bethesda announces the end to the recent legal conflict over the rights to publish an MMO set in the Fallout universe as the rights revert back to the Skyrim developer and its parent company, ZeniMax.
Posted 12/29/11 1:07 pm EST by Charles Webb in Legal Action, News, Xbox 360
Plus, the surprising revelation about a nixed Sega/Silicon Knights collaboration.
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Posted 1/2/11 12:00 pm EST by Charles Webb in 3DS / DS, Legal Action, News, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360
Hacker gets cease and desist after messing around with the game's action figures.
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Posted 7/11/08 2:54 pm EST by Stephen Totilo in Legal Action, Music Games, rock band, Rock Revolution
At MTVNews.com today we have a report about "Rock Revolution" publisher Konami's recent lawsuit against the makers of "Rock Band." Konami alleges that MTV-owned development studio Harmonix has been infringing on three Konami patents.
In my report, MTV PR provides comment about the legal action:
"Konami's actions are extremely surprising," an MTV spokesperson said of the suit. "Unfortunately, successful products such as 'Rock Band' can often become targets for baseless litigation. We have substantial defenses to this claim and intend to vigorously defend it."
Read the full story: 'Rock Band' Creators Sued By 'Rock Revolution' Publisher Konami
(Full disclosure: While "Rock Band" is published by MTV, we cover it at MTV News and MTV Multiplayer with same standards we cover all other video games.)
Posted 3/22/08 7:30 am EST by Stephen Totilo in Legal Action, Music Games, rock band
"Rock Band" developers Harmonix have responded to Gibson Guitar Corporation's lawsuit accusing the MTV/EA/Harmonix game of patent infringement:
"This lawsuit is completely without merit and we intend to defend it vigorously," the Harmonix statement reads. "Gibson's patent, filed nearly 10 years ago, required a 3D display, a real musical instrument and a recording of a concert. Rock Band and Guitar Hero are completely different: among other things they are games, require no headset and use a controller only shaped like a real instrument. It is unfortunate that Gibson unfairly desires to share in the tremendous success enjoyed by the developers of Rock Band and Guitar Hero."
(For more on how Gibson compares its patent with "Guitar Hero," check out the manufacturer's nine-page chart re-printed in this earlier Multiplayer post.)