The Briefing: Trademark Basics - Protecting Names, Logos, and Brands in Entertainment
The Rise of OTAs in Defense Contracting: Opportunities, Risks, and What Contractors Need to Know
Money-Saving Licensing Tips for Startups
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Trending Now: An IP Podcast - Cease and Desist Letters: Protecting Your Intellectual Property the Right Way
PODCAST: PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Trending Now: An IP Podcast - Cease and Desist Letters: Protecting Your Intellectual Property the Right Way
A Counterintuitive Approach to Winning Without Litigation: One-on-One with Haley Morrison
SkadBytes Podcast | Tech’s Shifting Landscape: Five Trends Shaping the Conversation
Tips for Conducting a Trade Secret Assessment with Rob Jensen
Will I Get Sued if I Create Another Hospital Drama? — No Infringement Intended Podcast
Essential Steps to Sell Your Business
Mickey Mouse: un ratón con abogado
(Podcast) The Briefing: The Ninth Circuit Puts the Brakes on Eleanor’s Copyright Claim
The Briefing: The Ninth Circuit Puts the Brakes on Eleanor’s Copyright Claim
Unexpected Paths to IP Law with Dan Young and Colin White
Why Can't I Clean the Graffiti Off My Walls? — No Infringement Intended Podcast
(Podcast) The Briefing: Trademark Smoked: The Fall of General Cigar’s COHIBA Registration
The Briefing: Trademark Smoked: The Fall of General Cigar’s COHIBA Registration
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Trending Now: An IP Podcast - NCAA Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) Update – Effects of House Settlement
How IP Can Fuel Your Startup's Growth
A long time ago in a galaxy not so far away, voice acting was the exclusive domain of talented humans. But today, in the age of generative AI, even the iconic voice of a legendary villain can be conjured without a single...more
The Court of Justice of the European Union ("CJEU") ruled that modifying temporary variables in the working memory of a computer without enabling the reproduction or further execution of such a program does not constitute...more
In its recent judgment in Sony Interactive Entertainment v. Datel, the CJEU ruled on the specific copyright protection of computer programs under Directive 2009/24/EC (Case C‑159/23). The CJEU found that while “cheating...more
The US District Court for the Northern District of Ohio issued an opinion in Hayden V. 2K Games, Inc. that could potentially put an end to tattoo copyright cases. Scott Hervey and Tara Sattler discuss the court’s opinion on...more
The Pitch newsletter is a monthly update of legal issues and news affecting or related to the music, film and television, fine arts, media, professional athletics, eSports, and gaming industries. The Pitch features a diverse...more
The recent decision on Hayden vs. 2K Games is a big win for video game publishers. Dive into the fascinating world of copyright disputes over tattoos in video games. Scott Hervey and Jamie Lincenberg from Weintraub Tobin...more
A jury rejected allegations that a video-game maker’s use of tattoos in a game violated the copyright of the artist who inked them, finding the video-game maker had an implied license to depict a player’s tattoos in its...more
Just a few weeks ago, a federal jury in Ohio sided with makers of the popular video game series “NBA2K”, over its use of tattoos inked on LeBron James by a Cleveland tattoo artist, James Hayden. In 2017, Hayden, who’s inked...more
Nintendo of America’s (Nintendo) recent dispute against emulator developer, Tropic Haze, has highlighted major questions of intellectual property (IP) in the gaming sphere. This alert explores the background behind Nintendo’s...more
Recent court decisions have provided helpful guidance on copyright infringement and tattoo designs, an issue that has spurred litigation from both virtual and real-world tattoo depictions....more
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) recently ruled in In re Joseph A. Stallard (dba Osgoode Media) that Osgoode Media could not register the image of a character as a trademark in connection with a video game....more
Rec Room, Inc. (Rec Room), developer of the eponymous Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) video game Rec Room, has sued one of its players in a Washington federal court for violations of its terms of service arising from the...more
On January 20, 2022, Riot Games sued Suga and Imba, two video game companies based in Asia, in the Central District of California, alleging that the defendants infringed on Riot’s intellectual property by creating a knockoff...more
Valve has reportedly adopted a policy to reject games that use AI-generated content over infringement concerns. A developer posted on the “aigamedev” subreddit that in response to submitting a game with some assets that were...more
Tattoo artist Catherine Alexander (“Alexander”) filed a lawsuit against World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. (“WWE”) and video game maker Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. (“Take-Two”) claiming they violated her intellectual...more
As a previous Wilson Sonsini Alert reported, Snail Games USA Inc. and Wildcard Properties LLC (collectively, “Snail”) sent a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice to Valve Corporation (Valve) in order to...more
Many video games are marketed on the photorealism of their imagery and graphics. However, depending on the depiction, developers and publishers may need to worry about the underlying intellectual property rights in that...more
As Scott Hervey previously wrote on the IP Law Blog, a tattoo artist won a copyright lawsuit against a video game publisher for showcasing an athlete with their tattoo design in a game. Scott and Josh Escovedo discuss the...more