Game Copyright Suit Highlights Difficulties of IP Protection in the Modern Age

A copyright infringement lawsuit filed over a Flash game that appeared on Facebook outlines “the slipperiness of enforcing intellectual property rights in a world where creating and dispersing infringing material to the public via social networking websites has become all too easy.”

After creating the Flash game Boomshine, Plaintiff Daniel Miller discovered a too similar, though differently named, game on Facebook entitled ChainRxn. Miller then filed suit, against developer Yao Wei Yeo (accused of direct infringement) and Facebook (accused of contributorily infringing). Miller alleged that ChainRxn incorporated the “same look and feel” of Boomshine, in addition to featuring “almost every visual element of the game.”

Unfortunately for Miller, Yeo could not be located in order to be served with a summons. Miller’s original complaint charged both defendants with copyright infringement, but after the complaint was dismissed, Miller amended his complaint to carry the currently stated charges.

Facebook quarreled against the accusation of contributory copyright infringement by arguing that (1) “the proposed complaint fails to sufficiently state a claim of direct infringement by a third party,” that (2) “that the proposed complaint fails to sufficiently state a claim for contributory copyright infringement against Facebook,” and (3) “continued failure by plaintiff to locate and serve the summons and complaint on defendant Yeo “should be treated as separate and independent grounds for dismissing the entire action.”

The order of the court (PDF), authored by U.S. District Judge William Alsup, stated that the direct infringement of copyright by Yeo was “plausibly alleged” in the complaint and that the threshold for stating a plausible claim for contributory infringement was also met.

On the third point Facebook was victorious, as the court set a date of July 30, 2010 to locate Yeo or the case will be dismissed.

|Via Lexology|