The participants addressed the most relevant legal aspects of the gaming industry including the following topics:
- How to Deal with Copycat Games: Legal View. Voodoo’s Nassim Ameli described ways for developers to protect their hyper-casual games from being copied. Voodoo has recently brought the fledgeling legal framework in the hypercasual market to a whole new level. The hyper-casual giant has won a court case against Istanbul-based publisher Rollic Games and developer Hero Games that copied key elements of Voodoo’s hit Woodturning.
- Esports Sponsorships: 2020 Lessons Learned and Action Plan for 2021.
- Music in Games: What You Need to Know.
- In-Game Items Regulations.
- Legal Features of the Chinese Game Industry. Yodo1’s James Lalonde broke down China’s regulations around:
- ISBN/Copyright registration and Apple China policies
- Game IP protection in china
- Some insight regarding the tax policies in China such as VAT and Withholding Tax
- Sessions on Privacy Laws and The problems of Digital Market Related to Privacy Requirements looked at current challenges related to privacy, including overview of complaints related to violation of privacy requirements by mobile games/apps, distributors/mobile marketing agencies, and analytic services.
- Game Mechanics Protectability. Hughes Media Law Group’s Toussaint L. Myricks covered relevant forms of intellectual property protection for video games, key US patent issues, operational game considerations, key functional aspects of video games and game patenting trends.
The event is a collaboration effort of law firm Semenov&Pevzner and the WN Hub team. The organizers are confident that Game Industry Legal Conference will be back.