Venture Beat recently reported on the results of a virtual goods study that showed about 75% of online games users have bought virtual goods and that many users surveyed plan to spend more in the next 12 months. This survey is one more confirmation of the rapid growth of virtual…
Augmented Planet Ltd. indicates that as of the end of June 2010, a search of the App Store revealed nearly 400 applications found by searching “augmented reality” and nearly 100 more that were augmented reality apps but didn’t use those words. In comparison, prior to September 2009, there were less…
A German data protection official has initiated action against Facebook for its use and storage of information about people who are not members. The actions result in part from the ability for registered users to use a tool provided by Facebook that scans a user’s existing email contacts and retrieves…
In Gucci America, Inc. v. Frontline Processing Corp., No. 09 Civ. 6925 (HB) (S.D.N.Y. June 23, 2010), a New York court denied a motion to dismiss contributory trademark infringement claims brought against the defendant credit card processing companies by Gucci. The court held that credit card processing companies may be…
Many people routinely click on the Agree button without reading the terms of service. Doing so can be perilous for many reasons. A pending case highlights another potential reason to read and abide by the terms of service – potential criminal liability. Granted, there are some unique facts here as…
We are proud to welcome two high profile lateral hires to our rapidly growing Virtual Worlds and Video Game team. On July 1, Sean Kane joined our New York Office. This follows on the heels of Mark Litvack joining our LA office in June of this year. Sean has a…
The Federal Trade Commission has extended until July 12, 2010, the deadline for public comments on its review of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) Rule. The request for comments was originally published in the Federal Register on April 5, 2010. As stated on the FTC website: The primary…
Often names can be misleading. So it is potentially the case with the federal CARD Act that will come into effect in August 2010. Although the name implies that it applies to cards such as stored value cards and gift cards, this Federal law will apply more broadly and has…
Th US Supreme Court issued a ruling today that overruled a relatively narrow test adopted by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, known as the machine-or-transformation test. The Supreme Court found: i) The machine-or-transformation test is not the sole test for patent eligibility under §101. The Court’s precedents…
According to a report from Global Times, the Ministry of Culture (MOC) issued an explanation on new rules which prevent gaming-related virtual currencies such as Tencent’s Q-bucks from entering into circulation as real money. According to the report, the rules were released on June 3, 2010 and will go into…