Zynga part en guerre judiciaire contre le Français Kobojo. Zynga, l'éditeur américain de jeux sociaux à succès comme "Farmville" et "Cityville", a déposé plainte en fin de semaine dernière contre son concurrent français Kobojo.
Il lui reproche une atteinte au droit d'auteur après l'utilisation du suffixe "ville" dans l'un de ses titres "PyramidVille", disponible depuis plus d'un an sur Facebook et qui compte plus d'un million de joueurs actifs par mois. Déposée dans un tribunal de San Francisco, la plainte explique que les utilisateurs du célèbre réseau social sont ainsi "susceptibles de penser, à tort, que 'PyramidVille' fait partie de la série de jeux 'ville' de Zynga".
"Compte tenu du refus de Kobojo de changer le nom de son jeu, une action en justice était nécessaire pour défendre nos propres titres et prévenir les joueurs de toute confusion", a précisé l'éditeur américain dans un communiqué publié lundi. En vertu du préjudice subi, Zynga réclame trois fois le montant des profits réalisés par Kobojo avec PyramidVille. Silent magician Teller files copyright suit over "stolen" shadow trick. Teller, the silent half of the well-known magic duo Penn and Teller, has sued a rival magician for copying one of his most famous illusions.
The case promises to test the boundaries of copyright law as it applies to magic tricks. In "Shadows," a spotlight casts a shadow of a rose onto a white screen. When Teller "cuts" the shadow on the screen with a knife, the corresponding parts of the flower fall to the floor. Posting Photos of Olympics Could Land You In Court. Les JO de Londres ou le déni de la liberté de communiquer. Il n'y a aucun évènement sportif au monde qui suscite une telle paranoïa des organisateurs dans la protection des droits de propriété intellectuelle.
Mexico City Journal - Spider-Man Is Among the Most Wanted. Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times Stores like this one in Mexico City have fallen victim to police raids for selling superhero-themed piñatas.
In a crackdown on pirated piñatas some months ago, officials from the attorney general’s office and the federal police seized more than 100 of the papier-mâché party accessories, Spider-Man prime among them, and took into custody several real-life piñata vendors as well. The authorities said the raid was a response to a complaint filed by Marvel Entertainment, which owns the rights to the characters in question.
Hulk, another Marvel character, was also overwhelmed by the men in black that day, as was Captain America. But the story line got a twist when it turned out that the raid might have been as questionable as the piñatas that were seized. Blizzard sued for murloc copyright infringement « Player Attack. At BlizzCons past, Blizzard has happily presented the adorable baby murloc as a sort of impromptu mascot for the World of Warcraft.
Murky and his siblings have appeared in blue, white and pink in addition to the traditional green, offered as a tidy piece of convention swag and later, in the company's online store in both physical and virtual forms. Former Blizzard staffer Amanda Lewis comments: In addition to their inherent appeal, such pets are status symbols and can be quite valuable on the secondary market for WoW items and characters. This is Why I Oppose the MPAA.
NFL Wants To Remind You That Having People Over To Watch The Super Bowl On A Big Screen Is Copyright Infringement. Zynga Tries To Trademark 'Ville' Lego locked in domestic copyright fight. As legal battles go, this one is far from child's play.
Danish toymaker Lego has chosen Hartford federal court as the stage for its latest legal attempt to beat back what it sees as a potential threat from a tiny overseas upstart to its dominance of the billion-dollar global market for plastic, toy blocks. Lego, whose U.S. marketing and distribution operations are in Enfield, is suing Best-Lock Construction Toys Inc., a Hong Kong rival whose market share is but a mere fraction of Lego's. For Lego, the issue is Best-Lock's alleged incursion of Lego's copyright purportedly covering the look and shape of its 1 ½ -inch-tall, trapezoidal action figures found in many of its toy-block sets, according to its suit filed last October. Lego demands a ban on Best-Lock's allegedly infringing minifigures in the U.S. and the destruction of existing inventory.
Juridique : Pour l’Avocat général de la CJE, les calendriers de football ne bénéficient pas du droit d’auteur. Power Rangers Halloween Costumes Morph Into Lawsuit. This Halloween, the most legally hot costume might be a Power Rangers uniform.
The company that owns the rights to the Power Rangers television series, brand and related products is suing a website that's selling the color-coded outfits. Eddie Van Halen Sues Nike Over Frankenstein Design (PHOTOS) Musician Eddie Van Halen filed a cause of action for copyright infringement on Friday in a Los Angeles court against Nike, the makers of NYX Dunk Low Premium athletic sneakers that feature his Frankenstein design - see shoe design below.
ELVH, a Van Halen company, contends that the similar Nike design caused irreparable harm and damage and asked for the seizure and destruction of all the sneakers, confiscation of the profits and damages. Nike issued the following statement: "Based on the information provided to us, we have not infringed on any rights held by Mr. Beyonce May Get Sued For Copyright Infringement Because Of The Way She Danced.
I have to admit that I still have trouble with the idea that choreography is subject to copyright.
For the life of me, I can't figure out why that makes any sense. It's come up from time to time, such as when the "inventor" of "The Electric Slide" sought to pull down videos on YouTube. Then there were the heirs of a choreographer planning to go after dancers who don't pay to honor the choreographer's legacy, of course.
Smiley ou l'histoire d'une OPA sur un sourire. Le Français Franklin Loufrani a eu l'idée de génie de déposer le logo dans les années 1970.
Aujourd'hui, son fils, Nicolas, gère la manne de ses produits dérivés dans le monde entier. Crédits photo : DR Deux points pour les yeux, un arc de cercle pour la bouche, le tout dans un rond jaune figurant un visage joyeux. Le smiley a bientôt 40 ans et fait partie du paysage. Il vit une nouvelle vie depuis l'essor d'Internet et des e-mails. BlackBerry dans une main, iPhone dans l'autre, Nicolas Loufrani, 38 ans tout juste, beau gosse aux yeux bleus, casquette façon titi parisien branché, est le CEO (directeur général) de la société fondée par son père au détour d'une idée lumineuse. Symbole de la house music Cette formidable affaire démarre en 1971. Virtual Animals Brush Up Against Real-Life Legal Challenges. Can Superman be split in two? - Entertainment News, Ted Johnson. Warner Bros. is hoping that Zack Snyder can do for “Superman” what Christopher Nolan did for “Batman.”
But the studio’s real-life tangle over the rights to the Man of Steel risks resembling another Nolan narrative: “Inception.” The way things are going, less than a year after Snyder’s “Man of Steel” is released in 2012 the rights to a significant part of the early Superman lore will revert back to the heirs of creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The Siegel and Shuster estates could wind up owning some parts of the Superman story while DC Comics owns others. Louis Vuitton sues Danish artist Plesner in the Netherlands over depiction of bag in art work. Danish artist Nadia Plesner is studying at the Rietveld Academie in the Netherlands. One of Plesner’s works of art, Darfurnica (see picture on the left), is modeled after Picasso’s Guernica and expresses the artist’s surprise at the attention that is paid to nondescript celebrities like Paris Hilton, while humanitarian disasters like those in Darfur remain rather unnoticed. In the middle of the painting an African child is depicted, holding a bag.
Louis Vuitton is of the view that the pattern of this bag infringes its design rights. As it now appears, Louis Vuitton has obtained an ex parte order (in Dutch) against Plesner from the Court of The Hague in preliminary relief proceedings. For non-lawyers: ex parte means that Plesner has not been heard by the court and has therefore been unable to bring forward a defense. Update 11 March: an English translation of the court order can be found here.
Update 30 March: The judge has decided to step down. La lutte contre les contrefaçons conduit à détruire un original unique. Settlers of Catan Makes Legal Threats: Can it Back Them Up? (Hint: No) In the comments in a recent blog post about 3D printing and intellectual property that focused on the board game Settlers of Catan the comments of someone named Neil caught my eye. The original post was about how limited the intellectual property protection for board games was, and ultimately concluded that printing a new 3D board was not an infringement. It then went on to invite discussion about what this lack of protection should mean going forward. It turns out that Neil had embarked on a similar project to recreate Settlers of Catan in a new medium. Instead of 3D printing a game board, Neil had created a version that ran on the Android platform called Island Settlers.
However, unlike Sublime’s 3D board, Neil’s Android board is no longer available. Seek protection for Mardi gras costumes. Barbie enchiladas. Copyright in jokes. What is reputedly the world’s shortest joke clocks in at a mere two words: “Pretentious? Moi?” Though jokes may seem an incongruous (even humorous) subject for intellectual property (IP) law, examining the extent to which protection is available for jokes provides an opportunity to reflect on a variety of issues relevant to copyright reform debates. Theoretically, there is no reason that a joke cannot be protected by copyright, so long as it meets the generally applicable requirements: the expression must be original and fixed in some tangible medium. Twitter comedy club: l'humour en open source.
"Ce n’est pas parce que David Douillet s’est occupé des pièces jaunes qu’il mérite qu’on lui offre un portefeuille" (@LANDEYves). "Logiquement, si Eric Woerth n’est pas cru, il est cuit" (@Pierrederuelle). Vous êtes de ceux dont le premier geste au réveil est de remonter votre TL ("fil" twitter) ? Do Celebrities Control the Rights to their Own Halloween Costumes? - THR, Esq. Porn site: publicizing takedown notices is copyright infringement. Animal copyright ? Eleventh session of TED2006 (background): running notes. Fellow Swiss Ursus Wehrli is the cleaning man of canvases and the author of "Tidying up art", a book where he takes the elements of paintings and "cleans them up".
For example, he walks into Van Gogh's "Bedroom" (here at right) with Photoshop and tidies up everything onto and under the bed ("this room hadn't been cleaned up since 1888", the year it was painted). Speaking with a Swiss-German accent, Wehrli is very funny. He shows the work he has done with works by Picasso, Bruegel's village square (which looks deserted "after I sent everyone home"), Niki de Saint-Phalle, Keith Haring, Paul Klee (he shows his 1930 coloured chalkboard Farbtafel: "you see that the artist had no idea how to use colors, or maybe he was in a hurry"), Jackson Pollock ("I decided to go all the way and just put the paint back into the cans"), and many others. Le CIO veut interdire le partage de photos amateur des Jeux Olympiques. Le Comité International Olympique (CIO) est réputé pour la gestion extrêmement aggressive de ses droits de propriété intellectuelle.
Elle le démontre jusqu'à l'extrême, d'une manière bien peu compatible avec l'évolution des usages et des technologies. Arrested In Japan For Showing People A New Pokemon Character A Few Days Early? Judge Bars ‘Fair Use’ Defense in Xbox Modding Trial. A California man charged with violating the DMCA by modifying Xbox 360 consoles won’t be allowed to claim “fair use” at his scheduled jury trial next week, a federal judge ruled Tuesday — a decision potentially devastating to the defense, and not particularly favorable to anyone who thinks they have the right to tinker with hardware that they’ve bought and paid for.
Matthew Crippen, 28, faces three years in prison on two allegations of violating the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act for financial gain. Case dismissed. LOS ANGELES — Federal authorities in the first-of-its-kind game-console–modding criminal trial abruptly dropped their prosecution here Thursday, “based on fairness and justice.” “The government has decided to dismiss the indictment,” prosecutor Allen Chiu told the judge shortly before the jury was to be seated on the third day of trial.