Marvel, NCsoft settle lawsuit News
PC MMO News by Ellie Gibson
NCsoft has settled its lawsuit with Marvel Entertainment in a deal which will not force the publisher to make any changes to its popular PC MMORPG, City of Heroes, after all.
Marvel filed suit against NCsoft last November, claiming that CoH players were creating characters in the likeness of Marvel superheroes and thereby infringing copyright. It marked the first time a publisher had been sued over content created by players and, had Marvel won the case, could have set an important precedent.
But under the terms of the undisclosed settlement, NCsoft is not required to make any changes to the character creation options in City of Heroes or its expansion, City of Villains.
"The parties' settlement allows them all to continue to develop and sell exciting and innovative products, but does not reduce the players' ability to express their creativity in making and playing original and exciting characters," NCsoft said in a statement.
"The parties have agreed that protecting intellectual property rights is critically important and each will continue aggressively to protect such rights in accordance with all applicable laws.
"All parties agree that this case was never about monetary issues and that the fans of their respective products and characters are the winners in this settlement."
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Comments: 1-12 of 12 in total
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optimusprym8
15/12/05 @ 10:14
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yeah if I see one more "Legolas Elfking" in Guild Wars I'm gonna scream!
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optimusprym8
15/12/05 @ 11:10
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"All parties agree that this case was never about monetary issues and that the fans of their respective products and characters are the winners in this settlement."
No large amounts of cash were involved. "/pedant" - Oi that's my job! OK, or variations of Legolas Elfking... :P :roll:
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 15/12/05 @ 11:11
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The_Aardvark
15/12/05 @ 11:16
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Marvel characters, unlike those from most fiction, are registered trade marks which is why you can't call your hero Wolv3rin3 but you can call your elf L3gola2.
NCsoft are pretty damn rigorous at banning people which copyright infringing names or appearances. It wouldn't surprise me if the payout was fairly small or non-existent as it's not clear that they were infringing copyright. |
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It may not have been the main reason but that is how it's settled, that's why there's the "we can't talk about it" clause added. I give you lots of cash, license the wolverine look, copyright protected, we all go on our merry way and nobody gets any bad press.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 15/12/05 @ 11:19
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kangarootoo
15/12/05 @ 17:56
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@Roamer
"Good thing for future games of any sort, I guess" Actually an out of court settlement sets no precident, so Marvel could still try and sue someone else over a similar issue. Had it gone to court and Marvel lost, they would have problems bringing successful cases of this type in the future. So it was probably in their interest to settle for that reason and in NCsoft's interest because of potentially huge legal bills. Thats wot I fink anyway. |
Comments: 1-12 of 12 in total
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