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.

Just when we all thought Lik-Sang has hit rockbottom, here comes yet another blow to their already severely damaged company. After causing the online retail company to close down because of the multiple lawsuits filed against them, Sony is actually demanding the payment of £ 100,000 (US$ 188,000) in legal fees by November 1st.

This news stirred up mix reactions, with some people saying Sony deserves to get it, while some would say that there's just no sense kicking somebody when he's already down. Says Pascal Clarysse, Lik-Sang's marketing director, "Sony should be proud of having such a die-hard import gamers community rushing to buy their products and supporting them with a passion. Instead, they march all over us."

As for Lik-Sang's allegation that four of the top executives of Sony Europe actually got their own PSPs via Lik-Sang just a few days after the Japanese launch, well, it's just safe to surmise that was pretty embarrassing for them. However, Sony in Tokyo declined to comment on the issue, citing the reason that they have this no-comment policy on pending or completed legal action.

Ironic, though, is Sony's revision of shipment forecasts for PSP from 12 million units down to 9 million units supposedly because of a decline in demand for the handheld, just when they succeeded in closing down an unauthorized sales channel to patrons from Europe.

Because of multiple lawsuits filed by Sony, Hong Kong gaming retailer Lik-Sang finally succumbed and bid the industry goodbye. As of today, Lik-Sang is no longer operational, following the ruling of the High Court of London regarding the retailer's sale of PSP consoles. According to the decision, Lik-Sang's act was unlawful as it infringed on Sony's trademarks, copyright, and registered design rights by engaging in gray importation.

The main stand of Sony, through a spokesperson's statement to Gamesindustry.biz recently, was that they ultimately had the customers' best interests at heart. They claim that it would be to the disadvantage of the consumer if they were sold hardware that fails to conform to strict EU or UK consumer safety standards.

Lik-Sang, however, vehemently disagrees with Sony's claims, citing that the PSP consoles that they ship contain genuine Sony 100V-240V AC Adapters, which carry CE and other safety marks, compatible worldwide. Furthermore, all the handhelds did actually conform with all EU and UK consumer safety regulations. Therefore, the necessity issue for consumer-protection raised by Sony was non-existent at best.

Lik-Sang also points out the irony that while Sony was berating them for supposedly infringing on their rights, they conveniently failed to disclose to the High Court of London that Sony Europe's very own top directors allegedly received their PSP hard or software imports from Lik-Sang, starting just two days after it officially came out in Japan, complete with accompanying free Lik-Sang merchandise, like mugs or badge holders.

SCEE Managing Director, Ray Maguire, UK Marketing Director Alan Duncan, Chris Sorrell, SCEE Creative Director, and Rob Parkin, SCEE Development Director, are just a few of the names who were found to have placed PSP-related Sony Europe orders. Nine months later, Lik-Sang found itself facing a lawsuit from the company of these former customers.

Former Marketing Manager of Lik-Sang.com, Pascal Clarysse, had some words to say about the issue. And you can expect it to be not pretty. Says he:

Today is Sony Europe victory about PSP, tomorrow is Sony Europe’s ongoing pressure about PlayStation 3. With this precedent set, next week could already be the stage for complaints from Sony America about the same thing, or from other console manufacturers about other consoles to other regions, or even from any publisher about any specific software title to any country they don’t see fit. It’s the beginning of the end... of the World as we know it.

So what happens now to those existing placement orders?

Lik-Sang will be cancelling and refunding all existing orders. They are also now working closely with banks and PayPal to work out the refund of any store credits held by the company. Their customer support department is also working double time to cater to any open transactions, like pending RMAs or repairs and shipping related matters. They also would like to reassure their patrons that they will make sure nobody gets in the line of fire unnecessarily regarding this issue.

And like receiving news that a good friend just passed away, there's nothing more left to say.

Tag this under general WTF-ery. During slow news days, and you need to get stuff, you start looking for the weird. This bit of "news" basically ties in with anything relating to copyright, intellectual property rights, and piracy. That means this touches upon anything you download online, from game demos to and homebrew goodies... well sort of.

Get this: Boy Scouts in the Los Angeles area will now be able to earn a patch for learning about the evils of downloading pirated movies, music, and other material on the internet. What does the patch look like? Look at the image on the right.

The scouts will be instructed on the basics of copyright law and learn how to identify five types of copyright works and three ways copyrighted stuff can be stolen. Activities for the scouts include visiting a movie studio (to see how much money employees lose due to piracy) and creating public service announcements urging others to be good copyright observing people.

So will kids carrying PSPs that have questionable media in it or gamers with mod-chips in their consoles start saying "Run! Here comes the boy scouts!" ...or something like that?

We know, we know, there are arguments as to whether or not things like mod-chips, hacks, emulations, homebrews, and even plain YouTube videos infringe on intellectual property rights. It just came to mind that given recent news - the ones about console companies filing lawsuits left and right on grounds of infringed intellectual property rights - perhaps instead of them spending money filing law suits, they could just send creepy Boy Scouts to the offending party to "weird them into submission."

Ergh. We should stop eating bad pizza before. I'm ending this before anyone thinks I'm drunk.