By Courtney Seams, GW Law 2L, (Contributing Research, Joseph La Vine) In a recent US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit decision, Hamilton v. Speight, 827 Fed. Appx. 238 (3rd Cir. 2020), Microsoft and Epic Games prevailed when the court found that their video game...
Last month, LEAD1’s Tom McMillen was joined by Michael McCann and Gregg Clifton for a comprehensive discussion of the College Athletes Bill of Rights. In late December 2020, U.S. Senators Booker and Blumenthal (and several other Senators as cosponsors) introduced the...
By Kevin Wenzel, GWU 3L A ruling in the Southern District of New York has elucidated the boundaries of copyright protection when it comes to including professional athletes’ tattoos to depict their likeness in video games. Solid Oak Sketches, LLC., a tattoo licensing...
A federal judge from the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has denied Nike, Inc.’s motion for sanctions against plaintiff Lontex Corporation in a contentious case involving alleged trademark violations. Nike sought sanctions after counsel for Lontex sent letters and...
By Christine M. Colwell, of Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson, L.L.P. For years, the NCAA has prohibited student-athletes from profiting from their name, image, and likeness (“NIL”). Examples of such prohibited activities include, but are not limited to, signing...
By Samantha Kaplan, NYU Law 3L In CG Tech. Dev., LLC v. FanDuel, Inc., the court affirmed the United States Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (“PTAB”) decision finding appellant CG Tech’s ‘818 patent invalid. CG Tech. Dev., LLC v. FanDuel, Inc., 794 F. App’x 942...
By Gregg E. Clifton and Iciss R. Tillis, of Jackson Lewis The NCAA has taken a further step toward the finalization of specific provisions which would allow student-athletes the opportunity to pursue endorsement opportunities for the use of their name, image...
By Benjamin Gilman, Michigan 3L In 2013, iLife Technologies Inc. (“iLife”) sued Nintendo of America, Inc. (“Nintendo”) claiming that Nintendo’s Wii gaming console infringed on iLife’s U.S. Patent No. 6,864,796 (“Claim 1”). Claim 1 is described as a system for...
By Andrew Quinn, Georgetown Law 3L In the past few months, Epic Games, Inc., the creator of the massively popular video game Fortnite, sought dismissal of two separate suits against it for allegedly copying dance moves and incorporating them into “emotes.”...
By Gregg E. Clifton and Nicholas A. Plinio, of Jackson Lewis New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy’s signature on the New Jersey Fair Play Act (S-971/A-2106) will allow New Jersey student-athletes to earn financial compensation from the use of their name, image, and...
By Lisa Rubin and Douglas Masters, of Loeb & Loeb LLP On June 29, 2020, the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of California allowed the majority of Upper Deck Company’s (“Upper Deck”) claims to proceed against Panini America, Inc. (“Panini”),...
By Jack Igoe, Michigan Law 3L On May 25, 2019, a group of individuals launched a coordinated digital attack on Twitch Interactive Inc., Amazon’s newly-acquired video game streaming giant. According to a legal complaint filed by Twitch, the hackers flooded...
