Interactive Entertainment

Two new criminal laws underscore the value of trade secrets as a critical asset to a corporation.  These new laws, the Trade Secrets Clarification Act (TSCA) and the Foreign and Economic Espionage Penalty Enhancement Act (FEEPEA), have increased the criminal penalties for stealing trade secrets, including fines in excess of $10 million.

To address a perceived gap in regulatory treatment of increasingly popular virtual currencies, including Bitcoin, the U.S. Department of the Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) released new guidance on March 18, 2013.

The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts recently held that collecting a consumer's ZIP code at the point of sale may violate Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 93, Section 105(a) (Section 105(a)), which restricts the ability of retailers to collect personal identification information (PII) from consumers in connection with a credit card transaction.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which is charged with enabling and securing the Internet, has been hard at work on a significant expansion project.

As more countries join the Madrid Protocol System for the International Registration of Marks (Madrid System), trademark owners should be sure to take full advantage of this trademark registration option.  There are now 89 members of the Madrid System.  Significantly lower application and maintenance costs, as well as streamlined portfolio management options, are just a few of the reasons why the Madrid System is advantageous for trademark owners.

On January 8, 2013, the Supreme Court of the State of New York conducted a hearing in a criminal case that may cause concern among software developers whose software could be used for illegal activities.

On March 16, 2013, the America Invents Act (AIA) changes U.S. patent law from a first-to-invent system to a first-inventor-to-file system, which moves U.S. patent law into closer harmony with most industrialized nations throughout the world. Among other practical consequences, this change will (1) expand the scope of what constitutes prior art and (2) phase out interference proceedings used to resolve disputes regarding who first invented a technology.

In a ruling that will impact certain aspects of how companies handle their SMS/text message promotional programs, on November 29, 2012, the Federal Communications Commission released a Declaratory Ruling regarding the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) pursuant to a request by SoundBite Communications, Inc.

On August 21, 2012, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York held that poker is a game of skill and thus running a poker game or business is not subject to federal prosecution under the federal Illegal Gambling Business Act ("IGBA").  Following on the heels of the Justice Department's September 20, 2011 ruling that the Wire Act (which prohibits using wire-line communications to place or receive bets) only applied to sports betting, last week's ruling may be another step toward legalizing online poker.

On January 5, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed the decision of the U.S. District Court of the District of New Jersey with respect to 2010 N.J. Laws Chapter 25, which amended New Jersey's unclaimed property statute.

NBC, FOX Broadcasting and other defendants reached a multi-million dollar settlement with plaintiffs in multiple California class action lawsuits alleging that American Idol and Deal or No Deal SMS sweepstakes were illegal lotteries.

On September 15, 2011, the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") released the changes it is proposing to make to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (required by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or "COPPA"), which has been in effect since 2000. To address technological developments in the past decade, the FTC is recommending a number of changes.

On July 26, 2011, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the Department of the Treasury ("FinCEN") issued a final rule amending the Bank Secrecy Act's regulations and establishing comprehensive regulatory requirements for prepaid access ("Final Rule").

In a matter of months, the amount of "Internet real estate"—which has been static for the past several years—will expand dramatically. Companies, organizations, cities and others will be able to apply to ICANN to launch new domain spaces using brand names (for example, .nike), generic terms (such as .shoes) and locations (such as .nyc).

On April 20, the Federal Circuit issued its long-awaited en banc decision in TiVo Inc. v. EchoStar Corp.,[1] vacating one ground for a contempt citation but affirming the other and upholding a $90 million sanction.  Along the way, the court significantly revised its approach to contempt proceedings in ways that may both help and hurt patentees in future cases.

On June 29, 2010, New Jersey enacted Assembly Bill 3002, which substantially revised the state’s unclaimed property laws.[1]  Many of these revisions directly impact issuers of “stored value cards,” which broadly includes paper gift certificates, gift cards, rebate cards, and other products.[2]  This white paper discusses AB 3002’s requirement to collect consumer names, addresses and zip codes and the abandonment period for stored value cards.

In late 2010, the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act, (ROSCA), passed in both chambers of Congress and, on December 29, 2010, was signed by the President. ROSCA will become law once final administrative actions are complete. The Act contains two primary prohibitions: (1) it prohibits and prevents Internet-based post-transaction third party sales and (2) it imposes specific requirements on negative option features.  The relevant terms and provisions are summarized in more detail below.

If your business provides automatically renewed or continuous subscriptions for services such as online games, online or print publications, or other subscription content, then you will need to tailor your service offers to California residents to meet the requirements of California Senate Bill 340 ("SB 340") by December 2010

Over the past three decades, the video game industry has grown to be a major part of the entertainment industry. Recently, a genre of video game called "Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games" has experienced a meteoric rise in popularity.