Reporting and commentary on games industry issues and related regulatory matters
Joined December 2023
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In the "cloned game" case that Sony brought against Tencent, several lawyers from Latham & Watkins, one of the world's largest law firms, have entered their appearance on Tencent's behalf.
Latham sometimes defends Apple, and generally has rather large clients.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has scheduled the Epic v. Apple hearing (Apple is appealing the district court's contempt ruling over anti-anti-steering) for October 21, 2025. It will be held in San Francisco. Each side gets 15 minutes.
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I said Nintendo's new anti-Palworld patent claim language ("even when" or "even if") was "weird". Today I ran a search on @DartsIp, a database of 2.5M+ patent cases worldwide. It can't find a single case where a court had to interpret a claim including "even when" or "even if".
The Ninth Circuit has granted Google an administrative stay of Epic's injunction, meaning that it will consider Google's motion for a stay pending a Supreme Court Petition before letting Epic enforce.
Google wants the Ninth Circuit to stay Epic's epic win pending its forthcoming petition for Supreme Court review. The 9th Cir. won't do that, but then Google will petition the Supreme Court.
#Nintendo resorts to weird #patent claims as its litigation against #Palworld maker #Pocketpair is struggling
A company that's on the winning track wouldn't change a patent in the middle of an ongoing litigation. But Nintendo just did it...
gamesfray.com/nintendo-resor…
The European Commission just published its decision to hold Apple in violation of the Digital Markets Act over the same anti-anti-steering issue that is also at the heart of the contempt holding by Judge YGR in Oakland:
ec.europa.eu/competition/dig…
1,220 days later, the Federal Trade Commission blessed Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard King: administrative complaint withdrawn
gamesfray.com/1220-days-late…
The ABK deal never was anticompetitive. While Lina Khan was right, at an abstract level, about historic U.S. underenforcement, this is a deal the FTC should have cleared right away.
Everyone could see that the merger was never used as a means of compromising competition.
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There won't be an FTC v. Microsoft trial over ABK this summer (where the same old losing arguments would have been presented by the FTC). The post-Khan FTC has decided to drop the complaint in light of the very clear 9th Circuit decision.
ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov…
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On the left, the latest public appearance of the judge who will decide the #Nintendo v. #Pocketpair (#Pokémon v. @Palworld_EN ) #patent dispute in Tokyo: Judge Motoyuki Nakashima of the Tokyo District Court.
The @FTC's Administrative Law Judge has DENIED a motion by the FTC's lawyers that would have prevented Microsoft from presenting -- at the ABK merger trial starting July 21 -- its agreements with Ubisoft, Sony, Nintendo, Boosteroid, NVIDIA, Nware and Ubitus. RELEVANT MATERIAL.
#Discord's streaming under #patent attack in Europe while #EpicGames fends off another patent holder’s U.S. lawsuit over Travis Scott, Ariana Grande concerts
A former BlackBerry patent is being asserted against Discord in the Unified Patent Court.
gamesfray.com/discords-strea…
The @FTC has scheduled its in-house trial over #Microsoft's acquisition of #ActivisionBlizzard to begin on July 21, 2025, at 10 AM Eastern Time.
That's another two months in which there could theoretically be a withdrawal, but for now it looks like the trial will go forward.
#Pocketpair (@Palworld_EN) had a procedural deadline today in Japan to respond to #Nintendo's reply brief. The sequence of pleadings in that patent dispute is actually the same as in Unified Patent Court and German patent infringement lawsuits: complaint, answer, reply, rejoinder
The @FTC's litigators and @Microsoft's lawyers have asked the FTC judge to schedule the trial over the Activision Blizzard deal for July 21.
Under a procedural agreement going back to 2023, it could have started as early as May 28.
Pocketpair already demoed gliding Pals in June 2021 — six months prior to Nintendo’s original patent application on switching riding objects!
At the INDIE Live Expo, Pocketpair gave a sneak preview of Palworld. Later, Nintendo filed for certain patents.
gamesfray.com/pocketpair-alr…
#Pocketpair presents moving-target challenge to #Nintendo’s #patent assertions, which annoy gamers but may ultimately make zero impact
Like a fleeing Pokémon, Palworld adapts and Nintendo may be left with practically nothing in the end.
gamesfray.com/pocketpair-pre…
U.S. appeals court finally decides #Microsoft legitimately acquired #ActivisionBlizzard: @FTC loses by ultrawide margin
The FTC wanted to move the goalposts for preliminary injunctions against mergers, and didn't. And its "case" has no substance.
gamesfray.com/u-s-appeals-co…