Kotaku: Copyright

Oregon Trail Copyright Owners Sue Frontierville Maker

Owen Good — Thu, 19 May 2011 22:30:00 EDT

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The May 30 launch of an "Oregon Trail" expansion pack in the popular Facebook game Frontierville has caught notice of the company holding the copyright to the edutainment classic, and it has sued to put a stop to the plans of Frontierville maker Zynga. More »

European Customs Seize PlayStation 3 Shipments

Brian Crecente — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 14:30:00 EST

Tens of thousands of PS3s were seized by customs officers last week in the Netherlands as part of an ongoing contentious court battle between LG and Sony, the Guardian reports. More »

Zynga Sued Over Mafia Wars Name

Mike Fahey — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 17:30:00 EDT

Popular Facebook game Mafia Wars comes under fire today as creator Zynga is sued for trademark violation by Digital Chocolate, the creator of the Mafia Wars mobile phone game series. More »

Tim Langdell Resigns from IGDA Board [Updated]

Owen Good — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:40:00 EDT

Tim Langdell, the CEO of EDGE Games, which has been at the heart of many controversies regarding trademark rights to the word "Edge" in video gaming, has stepped down from the board of directors of the International Game Developers Association. More »

Kid Icarus "Clone" Changes It's Name To Something Less Icarian

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:00:00 EDT

Since Nintendo won't be releasing a Kid Icarus game on the Wii any time soon, OTT Games decided to release something very similar in Icarian: Kindred Spirits. Turns out it might have been too similar. More »

No, Nintendo, You Are Not Allowed To Trademark The Term "Wii Remote"

Luke Plunkett — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:40:00 EST

In March, Nintendo sought to trademark the term "Wii Remote". As you'd expect, what with the device being theirs and all. But last week, a letter arrived at Nintendo HQ. The sender? The United States Patent Office. Their response? More »

Capcom Wins Dead Rising Copyright Case

Stuart Houghton — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:20:00 EST

A judge has dismissed the court case against Capcom by The MKR Group, which claimed that mall-based Zombie satire Dead Rising was a bit too similar to mall-based Zombie satire Dawn Of The Dead. More »

Atari Going After iPhone Breakout Clones

Stuart Houghton — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 18:20:00 EDT

Atari has fired off some stern letters to iPhone games developers, citing infringement of their Breakout intellectual property. More »

iPhone Tetris Clone 'Tris' Pulled From App Store

Stuart Houghton — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 20:40:00 EDT

iPhone gamers who were looking forward to some old school block arranging, you have a tiny window in which to buy a copy of Tris. The popular Tetris clone will removed from the Apple App Store on Wednesday August 27th. More »

Casual Game Cloning

lsmith — Sun, 08 Jan 2006 15:45:54 EST

GameSetWatch looks at the issue of casual games being blatantly copied by other games. It's alot like generic brands of cereal at the grocery store, sure, Tastee-Os are alot like Cheerios, but they are just enough different to skirt confrontation. The GameSetWatch piece suggests that "Maybe many of these ideas are too simple to be copyrighted, but something feels just a little over-ripe in casual games right now regarding game clones." More »

Tecmo Hack Site Speaks Out

Brian Crecente — Thu, 10 Feb 2005 14:16:53 EST

More details are emerging in the suit filed by Tecmo last month against alleged hackers who were creating new skins for game characters. The site s owner has been talking about the problems on Xbox-Scene. The site, Ninjahacker.Net, was shut down On Jan. 25 after the owner received word of the suit. One of the people connected to the site has been asking and answering questions on the Xbox-Scene forums as Cypher35. There are already more than 270 posts. More »

Tecmo Sues Hack Site

Brian Crecente — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 14:20:03 EST

Tecmo is suing a game site for creating programs that help hack a slew of Xbox games including Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive. The suit names the site administrators and hints at more individuals being named down the line. The actual hacks are apparently changes to the graphics and play in the game, something that Tecmo has never found amusing. More »

Red Cross Isn't a Tekken 5 Fan

Brian Crecente — Tue, 08 Feb 2005 08:21:14 EST

The Red Cross wasn t too happy to see something that looked a lot like one of their nurse s outfits riding the sexy hips of Tekken 5 s Anna Williams. Namco is emailing game sites asking them to remove the picture of nurse Williams they sent out back in January. Here s a snip from Video Fenky. More »

NCsoft Asks for Marvel Suit to Be Dropped

Brian Crecente — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 10:32:11 EST

City of Heroes is fighting back. Last November Marvel decided to sue the massively multiplayer game maker because some players have been making characters that look an awful lot like creations from their comics. Last week, City of Heroes' parent company, NCsoft, asked that the suit be dismissed. The filing is mostly boring legalese, but this gem just pops out: More »

Games X Copy maker promises to never sell software again

Brian Crecente — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 12:16:58 EST

Hollywood and the video game industry are still spitting on the company they killed in a crush of lawsuits and court orders. 321 Studios, which made the Games X Copy software, settled with three game publishers, finally putting an end to the torment. The company, long dead, promises to not resurrect itself and start selling the software again. I have a copy of the Games X Copy software and while it can make successful copies of just about every game, it appears to do so in a way that makes it playable only on the computer you copied it with which I hope to God is legal. More »