Over the years, video games have grown into a larger industry than movies, television, and music. Intellectual property has always been a key driver in the business, with disputes between players large and small involving patents, copyrights, and trademarks. As the industry has grown, the intellectual property issues have leveled up too. Ross Dannenberg and […]
Over the years, video games have grown into a larger industry than movies, television, and music. Intellectual property has always been a key driver in the business, with disputes between players large and small involving patents, copyrights, and trademarks. As the industry has grown, the intellectual property issues have leveled up too.
Ross Dannenberg and Scott M. Kelly serve as editors at the Patent Arcade, a site Ross founded in April 2005, where they and other members of our team write on current and historical intellectual property issues in the video game industry. As we celebrate National Video Game Day, here’s some of the legal disputes that have helped define the industry.
The first major video game case, Magnavox Co. v. Activision, Inc.[1] was a patent infringement lawsuit that hinged on purely functional aspects. Magnavox’s Odyssey game console, the inspiration for Pong and synonymous with early video games, allowed two players to bounce a white dot back-and-forth simulating digital ping-pong. Magnavox pursued broad patent protection over its gaming devices, claim 51 of its patent reciting: