Patent Arcade


"A primary resource for video game IP law, news, cases and commentary. Issues that are covered include copyright protection, trademark protection, trade secrets, and patent protection of video games."

Author: Ross A. Dannenberg is an attorney at Banner & Witcoff in Washington, D.C.

Blawg Related Categories: Intellectual Property Law • Copyright Law • Patent Law • Trademark Law

Recent Posts from Patent Arcade


  • Case: Harmonix v. Konami (Mass.)

    Harmonix and Viacom jointly filed suit in the District of Massachusetts against Konami for patent infringement. The lawsuit alleges Konami’s “ROCK REVOLUTION” video game infringes U.S. Pat. No., 7,459,624 entitled "Game controller simulating a musical…

  • Resource: Free video game course instruction

    I don't normally post non-legal content, but this one is a good resource for budding video game designers: 70+ Open Courseware Links for Game Designers and Developers. Most of the resources appear to be links…

  • News: Santa Clara Law School Hosts Open House in Second Life

    From Leigh Jones, Associate editor at the National Law Journal:--In what is considered the first event of its kind, Santa Clara University School of Law is holding an open house in the virtual world of…

  • News: Speaking at GDC 2009

    I just wanted to take a minute and let everyone know that I will be speaking at GDC 2009 (March 25-27, 2009) this year. I'm not sure which day my presentation will be, but I…

  • News: Guitar Hero/Rock Band for a REAL guitar

    You know, I've been waiting for over a year since I first heard about Guitar Rising, a Guitar Hero style video game that you can play with a REAL guitar. It seems to be the…

  • New Case: Worlds.com v. NCSoft (E.D.Tex., filed Dec. 24, 2008)

    Merry Christmas, you've been sued. It's not uncommon for plaintiffs to file lawsuits around the holidays in order to "turn the screws" on defendants, and that appears to be the case here. Worlds.com sued NCSoft…

  • Case Update: Nintendo v. Nyko SETTLED

    As previously reported, Nintendo sued Nyko for design patent infringement and trademark infringement over the Wii's nunchuk controller. On Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008, the parties filed a STIPULATION for Dismissal of Action by parties, indicating…

  • In memoriam: A loss to the Virtual World community...

    Case: Capcom v. MKR (ND Cal. 2008)

    Capcom Co., Ltd. et. al. v. The MKR GroupN.D. Cal. 2008(by Shawn Gorman) While relatively short lived, this legal battle provides several insights for both video game producers and their legal teams. At issue was…

  • Articles about IP in Virtual Worlds

    I recently wrote a series of short articles for LinuxInsider regarding IP issues as they arise in virtual worlds and video games. Each article was necessarily short, so there wasn't room to go into a…