Another week full of lawsuits. Poor, beleaguered company Midway came under fire once again, and this time it was from a very unlikely direction: the guy behind the Mortal Kombat movies is suing them in order to "protect his IP rights", which is a better way of saying that he wants to keep milking the MK franchise for as long as possible. Square Enix also got served with a class-action lawsuit for "deceiving" Final Fantasy XI patrons regarding fees. Not everything was bad, though. Read all about 'em after the jump in this week's Warrior recap.

Brett Ratner makes movies. He directed stuff like the Rush Hour series and the third X-Men movie. Recently, he confirmed to UGO.com's Movie Blog that yes indeedy, he's going to be working on the big screen adaptation of the God of War video game series.

A series of lawsuits filed by Activision has led to speculation that the world's biggest video game publisher is now employing tactics similar to those employed by the RIAA to crack down on file sharers. However, Karin Pagnanelli, Activision's lead attorney, has denied that the
lawsuits had anything to do with file sharing. More after the jump.

Another lawsuit has been filed against 3D Realms, this time over the first-person shooter Earth No More (Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, PC) whose original idea was allegedly stolen from Cinemagraphix Entertainment. 3D Realms' CEO, however, seems confident that the company will be able to prove its full innocence. Check out the full article for more details.

Sony is under fire on the legal front once again, and this time the target is the company's usage of the trademark "Buzz", which it uses for Relentless Software's Buzz! quiz game series. The complainant? A U.S-based electronic trivia games company called Buzztime Entertainment. More in the full article.

Long-standing lawsuit filed by WWE against THQ and Jakks Pacific concerning racketeering and bribery was finally put to rest by a US district court judge last December 3rd. More details about  the allegations made by WWE against THQ and Jakks Pacific and the lawsuit in general at the full article.

Sony, oh Sony, when will you launch a gaming console that won't get slapped with yet another lawsuit? Parallel Processing Corporation (PPC), a California-based company, sued Sony and accused the creators of the PlayStation for infringing on its patent of Synchronized Parallel Processing with Shared Memory (Patent no. 5,056,000), and using the said patent on its Cell processors.

The five-page complaint that PPC filed against Sony claims that Sony's powerful Cell processors used the company's patented technology, enabling Sony's Cell chips to breakdown processes into smaller ones, all running at the same time and in different parallel processors for faster computing.

The patent was signed and approved on October 8, 1991, and was awarded to International Parallel Machines. Parallel Processing Corporation claims to be the exclusive licensee of the patent, and is seeking damages and attorney's fees. But the scarier part? Impounding and destruction of all Sony products that infringe on the same patent.

With past lawsuits ranging from rumble controllers, LAN technology, and even employees demanding for overtime pay, we certainly hope that Sony and the PlayStation 3 come out of this mess unscathed. We still have Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy XIII to look forward to after all.

From the old 16-bit days to the current generation of gaming, the quest to make games more realistic has been the golden fleece of just about every developer. Game makers, however, need to slow down as an article in Game Daily warns that lawsuits can arise from this aspect of creative exploration.

The First Amendment has recently been put to the test against laws barring the emulation of people and landmarks for commercial use. Lawsuits have been filed against Sega and Rockstar Entertainment for alleged violations of identities and trademarks. Courts ultimately decided to favor the developers, but not without a heated court debate for each case.

In the litigation involving Rockstar, East L.A. strip club PlayPen complained that the makers of the Grand Theft Auto series depicted a very similar club in a very similar location with a very similar name in one of their titles. The club in the game? The PigPen.

In the same manner, Sega got into a bit of trouble with Kierin Kirby of the 80's pop group Dee-Lite. Kirby claims that the Japanese publisher created a game called Space Channel 5 with a main character that resembled her. The Space Channel 5 heroine, Ulala, has a similar dress motif, hairstyle and dance repertoire to the real-life performer, thus ushering a litigation.

Sega won by the power of freedom of expression. The court ruled that there were substantial differences between Ulala and Kirby in terms of hair arrangement, dresses and body frame, ending the dispute.

Lawyers assured the public that this isn't the last of these cases and offenders will be taken to court whenever the need arises for litigation.

Jack Thompson and Take-Two Interactive have reached a settlement on two pending legal actions in Florida. The lawsuits began last month with Take-Two Interactive filing one against Thompson based on his threats to sue the company in order to prevent the release of Manhunt 2 and Grand Theft Auto IV. Thompson filed a counter-suit against Take-Two citing the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) act.

The recent settlement was filed with Federal District Court Judge Cecilia Altonaga which had both parties agreeing to drop the lawsuits they filed against each other. In addition, Take-Two has also agreed to drop the contempt of court case which happened in the hearing for Bully.

Thompson, on the other hand, will never sue or threaten to sue Take-Two or any of its subsidiaries to block sale or distribution of any game the company is publishing. He is also barred from communicating with any of the company's business associates with allegations that selling Take-Two games is illegal or wrong. He is not restricted from criticizing Take-Two games and is still allowed to act as counsel in lawsuits against Take-Two filed by other parties. Any future contact of Thompson with Take Two will have to be coursed through Take-Two's attorneys.

So does this mean that Jack Thompson is out of Take-Two's hair forever? We can't say for certain, but the settlement might be enough to stop him from harassing the company.

You can find a copy of the entire settlement documentation here.

American lawyer and critic Jack Thompson has mailed yet again threats of lawsuits to Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar Games for the upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto IV for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game consoles.

Thompson is recognized for his work as a "public guardian" against sex and violence in the entertainment industry. He has had run-ins with past GTA games and distributors of the material. The most notable of which is a lawsuit on the subject of the game Bully bearing a Teen rating and being sold to minors. Thompson lost that case.

In a letter to Take-Two interactive CEO Paul Eibeler, Thompson wrote that he will file a suit on March 9 unless the company agrees to write a written agreement that it will not sell its flagship title to minors. He also said that Take-Two Interactive was able to "dodge that bullet (Bully lawsuit) by having Take-Two employees lie to Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Ronald Friedman."

For parting shots, he said he is looking forward to seeing Eibeler win the "Worst American CEO" award from MarketWatch again. Eibeler first won it in 2005.

How the activist lawyer will win this next case remains to be seen.  Take-Two has not issued a response to the letter.