In this Q&A with Tyz Law Group partner and games industry legal guru, Jennifer Kelly answers questions about why and how she became the go-to lawyer in the games industry.

In August, Epic filed a pair of antitrust lawsuits against Apple and Google in a move that is poised to intensify and develop the landscape around allegedly anticompetitive business practices of Apple and Google, and specifically around their app stores.

On June 16, 2020, the Federal Circuit affirmed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s invalidity findings relating to PalTalk’s U.S. Patents Nos. 5,822,523 and 6,226,686, relating to group messaging features.

Last month, Miniclip, SA, a Swiss game publisher with over 1,000 games in its portfolio, settled with the FTC over allegations that it promoted its participation in the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (“CARU”) safe harbor program long after it had been kicked out of that program.

On June 4, 2020, the Northern District of California granted and denied in part Gamevice’s summary judgment motion against Nintendo, in a case where each party had asserted multiple gaming controller patents against the other.

Game companies frequently do not make a habit of filing copyright applications when they publish a new game.

On May 29, 2020, a federal district court in Maryland dismissed with prejudice a lawsuit against Epic Games brought by two University of Maryland basketball players, who alleged that a Fortnite emote copied the “Running Man,” a dance move they claimed to have popularized.

On March 31, 2020, the Southern District of New York granted summary judgment to defendants Activision Blizzard, Inc., Activision Publishing , Inc., and Major League Gaming Corp. in a trademark suit over Activision’s depiction of Humvees in the Call of Duty video game franchise.

On March 26, 2020, the Southern District of New York granted summary judgment to defendants 2K Games and Take-Two Interactive Software in a copyright suit over the depiction of tattoos of certain NBA players in NBA2k games.

On March 16, 2020, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal by the Central District of California of copyright claims brought by Denise Daniels against the Walt Disney Company, alleging that the characters in Disney’s Inside Out infringed characters she developed called The Moodsters.

Beginning January 1, 2019, video games that allow players to communicate by text, voice, or video are subject to a U.S. law enacted nine years ago that requires communication services to be accessible to people with disabilities.

On March 29, 2018, the Court of Appeals of New York unanimously affirmed dismissal of a lawsuit brought by Lindsay Lohan against Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., which asserted that the Lacey Jonas from Grand Theft Auto 5 infringed her right of publicity.

On October 27, 2015, the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles granted defendants’ special motion to strike plaintiff—and former Panamanian dictator—Manuel Noriega’s right of publicity suit based on his depiction in Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

On August 21, 2015, the Northern District of California dismissed trademark claims brought by VIRAG, S.R.L. against Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. over the depiction of VIRAG’s logo in Sony’s Gran Turismo racing games.

On March 2, 1982, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court’s denial of a motion for a preliminary injunction brought by plaintiffs Atari, Inc. and Midway Mfg. Co. against defendants North American Philips Consumer Electronics Corp. and Park Television for alleged copyright infringement of plaintiffs’ PAC-MAN game.