Tag Archives: lawsuit

Like Liam Neeson rescuing his daughter with the help of his best pals Fist and Gun, Activision was relentless in its pursuit of its beloved website domain. And you know what that means: mountains of unconscious and/or deadsploded thugs. No wait, the other thing: court cases!

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It’s time for your second batch of shorts for the day. This one features an interesting off-screen video of Yoshinori Ono and Katsuhiro Harada doing, well, just watch. We’ve actually posted the video in here. A shorts first? Maybe.

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A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday that there was sufficient evidence to support Jason West and Vincent Zampella’s case against Activision, therefore the case will be going to trial.

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Zynga has filed a lawsuit against Brazilian social gaming start up Vostu for “blatant infringement of our creative works”.

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A Canadian citizen has filed a PlayStation Network-related class action suit against Sony, demanding at least C$1 billion dollars in damages from the corporation.

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Shorts don’t just belong on Saturday. Any day there are lots of pieces of little news is shorts day.

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Jason West and Vince Zampella are countering Activision’s recent attempt to broaden the legal clash between the mega-publisher and the two ex-Infinity Ward heads by claiming undue financial hardship, according to documents unearthed by Kotaku.

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Activision has put a hefty $400 million price tag on the amount of damages it’s seeking from not only Jason West and Vince Zampella for breach of contract, but EA as well for supposedly luring the duo away from the company.

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Konami and Harmonix settled a patent dispute over Rock Band, according to court filings in Texas this week.

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In 2008, Ultima creator Richard “Lord British” Garriott was on top of the world. Literally. He had a cushy seat atop one of the world’s largest MMO developers, and he – you know – went to outer space. Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there.

Until today.

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Nintendo of Australia has announced that its won a lawsuit filed against James Burt for pirating New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

The judgment handed down in the case comes to Burt owing the company $1.5 million AUD ($1.3 million US) for loss of revenue from a game that has so far sold over 10 million units.

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Nintendo, Capcom, and 53 other “unspecified” game publishers are on the legal warpath again, this time with their sights firmly set on four R4 cart sellers. R4 carts, in case you hadn’t heard, were outlawed in Japan earlier this year. But then, the law’s never really been much of an issue for pirates, now has it?

Capcom claims that, despite a Tokyo court’s earlier anti-R4 ruling, this group of dealers won’t stop hawking their piracy prone wares. In Capcom’s own words, they “ignore our warnings” and “[did] not show any sincere response.” Hopefully, then, a lawsuit will get their attention.

Thanks, Gamasutra.

After an inhumanly long period of butting heads with partner Jakks Pacific, THQ has finally prevailed, according to Gamasutra.

The in-fight was waged over a contract dispute, which has now, obviously, been ironed out. An arbitrator gave the nod to THQ, saying that Jakks is now entitled to six percent of sales from WWE wrasslin’ games — a significantly smaller chunk of change when compared to the ten percent it received before the dispute.

With that out of the way, it’s all peace, love, and dove between the corporate tag-team partners, right? Nuh-uh. Jakks and THQ are now trading lawsuits over WWE contract extensions.

And that, children, is where videogames come from.

More through the link.

A lawsuit has been brought against Square Enix, seeking more than $5 million, for what is alleged to be “unfair business practices, false advertising and unjust enrichment”.

Plaintiff Esther Leong of San Francisco is claiming Square Enix “lied about or concealed its monthly fees, penalties for late payments, interest, restrictions and other things that should have been fully disclosed at points of purchase” concerning Final Fantasy XI.

Good luck with that. From Courthouse News Service, via 1UP.

Gather ’round, kids. It’s story time. Shacknews recently couldn’t avoid stumbling over new documents pertaining to the Take-Two and 3D Realms’ Duke Nukem Forever feud because — hoo boy — within those documents lies one tall tale.

In essence, Take-Two claims that 3D Realms/Apogee wouldn’t agree to develop an Xbox 360 version of the now debatably deceased game, so Take-Two began searching for another developer to get Duke ready for his Xbox 360 close-up. This, of course, meant that 3D Realms would have to provide source code for the outsourced port.

However, that assured screaming match between Take-Two and 3D Realms never even had a chance to occur, because 3D Realms then imploded, taking DNF’s source code with it. Thus, Take-Two sued 3D Realms, since — according to the “agreement” Take-Two hasn’t been seen without since this whole thing began — 3D Realms was obligated to provide source code for the project.

Here’s where things take a turn for the outlandish, though. Take-Two believes 3D Realms has more money than it’s been letting on, claiming said secret mattress stuffed with cash is hidden in an “off-shore account.”

“Upon information and belief, Apogee has title to a substantial amount of funds deposited in an off-shore account, which Take-Two believes Apogee can use to fund its outstanding obligations,” reads the suit.

The Duke developer, of course, says the allegation is rubbish.

“3DR has been in nearly a dozen lawsuits (including against Warner and Fox). We’re always innocent, and we always win. This one is no exception. Give it a year, then the truth will come out,” said 3D Realms/Apogee founder Scott Miller.

More through the link, if you can believe it.

Old people play videogames now, EA. You’re going to have to find a new place to break the law. That is, if a lawsuit — headed up by NFL retiree Bernie Parrish — succeeds in landing the mega-publisher firmly on its hindquarters.

According to the jilted ex-player, John Madden has pulled in “over $100,000,000 in royalties” from the ungodly successful pigskin-tosser, while retired NFL players haven’t seen a single cent, even though the games allegedly use their likenesses. Parrish and co. plan to sue in response.

Last year, retirees scored $28 million in a similar suit against the NFL Players Association. EA and Madden are probably having one final, excessively passionate makeout session with their money before saying goodbye.

Thanks, GamePolitics.

Microsoft has settled the $90 million patent infringement lawsuit brought against it by PalTalk.

PalTalk claimed it owned rights to “interactive applications over multiple computers,” and said that Microsoft infringed upon these via Xbox 360 and Halo multiplayer.

The trial, which started Monday, ended early when both parties agreed on an undisclosed sum.

This figure ranges anywhere from the $200,000 that PalTalk originally paid for the patents, to the $90 million it filed against Microsoft.

The lawsuit between the estate of Mario Puzo and Paramount over 2006 action crime game The Godfather has been settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.

Puzo’s estate – the author passed away ten years ago – was trying to get Paramount to fork over $1 million in sales and rental revenue.

“We think it’s a terrific settlement,” said Bert Fields, the lawyer for the Puzo estate, Bert Fields. “This involved one of the most admired films of all time.”

Lots more through there.

In light of the recent lawsuit filed by Worlds.com, NCSoft told videogaming247 this afternoon that whilst it can’t comment on specific cases, it takes all legal action seriously and that the company intends to defend itself “vigorously”.

“We can’t comment on potential litigation except to say that NCsoft takes all legal action seriously – even if the company believes a lawsuit has no merit,” said the rep to VG247 today.

“We intend to defend ourselves vigorously.”

Worlds.com believes it has the patent on “System and Method for Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual Space,” meaning all games featuring online virtual worlds – namely MMOs – are under threat.

If successful, NCSoft could be the first in a long line of MMO publishers to be faced with comparative legal action as Worlds.com will be buoyed by any success it might have in or out of the courtroom and will most certainly soon be banging on Blizzard’s door.

By Mike Bowden

California-based Buzztime Entertainment has filed a suit against SCEE, says this, alleging that the Buzz! series of games, developed by Relentless in Brighton, UK, infringes its trademarks. Buzztime makes trivia games for bars and restaurants, apparently played by 13 million people a month.

According to that Gamespot report, “The Buzztime Entertainment trademarks cover uses of the terms for ‘entertainment in the nature of interactive games played via interactive television and an interactive global computer network,’ and ‘equipment for playing a plug and play game, namely, video game machines for use with televisions, video game interactive remote control units, video game cartridges, and interactive video game programs,’ among other things.”

Buzztime wants all infringing products recalled and… destroyed. They should go the whole hog and try to get them ejected into space. More on this as it unfolds.