In the recent 10 years there were several news and cases about virtual goods and their presumed values that echoed beyond their virtual environment into the real world and changed the judgement of video games. Before that a layman would have thought ...
Read MoreThe legal classification of video games as interactive entertaining software varies from nation to nation. As a general rule world-wide, video games enjoy the protection of the copyright acts of the given jurisdiction, which can be applied to a video...
Read MoreKey differences between the approach of the European Patent Office (EPO) and US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in relation to the patentability of methods of playing video games The EPO applies the provisions of the European Patent Conven...
Read MoreThe Software Directive[1] harmonised the copyright protection over computer programs (hereinafter: “CP”) – providing that the CP is the author’s own intellectual creation – as literary works[2]. However, the subject matter of the protecti...
Read MoreIs the right of distribution exhausted in the US and the EU when a video game is downloaded? Is there any justification to treat differently physical and digital distribution and to discriminate between the type of content distributed? Despite...
Read MoreThere are lots of uncertainties when it comes to legal analysis of disputes related to IP rights and their alleged infringement within the constantly innovated market of video games. As it is booming and attracts more and more attention and investmen...
Read MoreCritical analysis of the implications for the video-game industry of the CJEU Decisions The relevant preliminary ruling had to address two questions: Whether the key-code embedded within the consoles of Nintendo satisfies the ’effective techn...
Read MoreAs it is well known, the core attribute of a video game is the computer program that lies beneath of all additional elements fused into one coherent product – the video game itself. In general, the computer program due to its fixed (written) nature e...
Read MoreAs the video game market moved from tangible products towards online playable and downloadable games that run as clients on the users’ computers and connected to and executed on the server-side of the provider – the contractual terms between the part...
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