For the third consecutive time this year, Nintendo has prevailed in a patent litigation in the U.S. A Maryland U.S. District Court judge has summarily dismissed a patent infringement lawsuit against Nintendo brought by IA Labs CA, LLC.

ZeniMax Media announced that a settlement had been reached in the lawsuit filed by its subsidiary, Bethesda Softworks, against Interplay Entertainment Corporation in 2009, regarding the license rights for a Fallout MMO.

Activision Blizzard amended its counter lawsuit against two former executives, adding rival publisher/developer Electronic Arts, and added a hefty price tag on its claim, $400 million. Activision accuses EA of intentionally interfering with contracts, engaging in unfair competition and aided and abetted breaches of fiduciary duty by former Infinity Ward executives Jason West and Vince Zampella.

Five years ago Carl Johnson escaped from the pressures of life in Los Santos, San Andreas. On his return to the neighborhood, a couple of corrupt cops frame him for homicide. CJ is forced on a journey that takes him across the entire state of San Andreas, to save his family and to take control of the streets.

UK based independent games developer and publisher Jagex Games Studio announced that it has been successful in securing a non-infringement judgement in its case against PalTalk Holdings Inc. for patent infringement.

In the ongoing fight against video game piracy worldwide, Nintendo of America has filed a civil lawsuit against the owner of multiple websites that sell illegal video game copiers. Nintendo filed suit on May 11 in the Western District of Washington against the owner of NXPGAME of Queens, NY.

Today the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that none of Nintendo’s video game controllers infringe on a patent asserted by Anascape, Ltd.

Former Infinity Ward president/game director and CEO Jason West and Vince Zampella, respectively, filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court against Activision, which terminated their employment weeks before they were to be paid substantial royalties as part of their existing contracts for Modern Warfare 2.

Recent developments surfaced this week in a class-action lawsuit filed by Hagens Berman, on behalf of current and former college athletes, against Electronic Arts and NCAA. U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken denied a motion to dismiss the case, and will move forward April 2010.

In 2006, MumboJumbo and Seattle-based PopCap Games reached an agreement whereby MumboJumbo would produce, distribute and sell certain PopCap games in North America. A jury in the 193rd Civil District Court in Dallas County, Texas, agreed that PopCap breached the contract when it decided to market and sell its games on its own.

A Fallout MMO has been talked about since 2004, but Interplay was forced to sell off most of its licenses due to financial reasons. When Bethesda acquired the Fallout license, Interplay kept an exclusive Fallout MMO license, under certain conditions. Interplay's annual 10-K filing reveals that Bethesda might be trying to cash in on that, claiming that those "certain conditions," namely full production within 2 years and funding, have not been met, which would revert the MMO license back to Bethesda. Now it seems the Fallout 3 developer is following through as it has formally filed suit against Interplay for their inability to move forward with the MMO, but also for making digital distribution deals with GOG and Steam for its back catalog and repackaged products which have not been approved by Bethesda (thanks NMA).

Brütal Legend is a 3rd person action/adventure starring Jack Black in the role of roadie Eddie Riggs, who sets on an epic quest to build an army of rockers with only a broad axe, a big block V8 and his faithful guitar in hand. In June, Activision filed a lawsuit against Double Fine to stop the release of Brütal Legend, claiming it never gave up the rights. DF countersued, and a preliminary hearing was postponed by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Craig Karlan, while saying it'll be a close call but also stating he doesn't think Activision will be able to win its argument. Re-scheduled for today, the hearing was canceled as both parties have settled out of court, although no details were revealed.

Square Enix’s copyright infringement lawsuit against Korean entertainment production company Fantom and music video producer Hong Jeong-ho, for the unauthorized re-enacting of an action sequence from FF VII: Advent Children in a music video, resulted in a damage award of approx. US$326,000.

Brütal Legend is a 3rd person action/adventure starring Jack Black in the role of roadie Eddie Riggs, who sets on an epic quest to build an army of rockers with only a broad axe, a big block V8 and his faithful guitar in hand. Last month, Activision filed a lawsuit against Double Fine to stop the release of Brütal Legend, claiming it never gave up the rights. DF countersued, and a preliminary hearing was postponed by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Craig Karlan. While he says it'll be a close call, he seems to think Activision won't be able to win its argument.

U.S. District Court judge Manuel Real has dismissed a patent-infringement lawsuit against Nintendo brought by Guardian Media Technologies alleging Nintendo's Wii infringed on one of its patents.

Despite rumors and statements to the contrary, 3D Realms has not closed and is not closing, and retains ownership of the Duke Nukem franchise. 3D Realms confirms that the Duke Nukem Forever (DNF) development team has been let go while it regroups as a company, it will continue to license and co-create games based upon the Duke Nukem franchise.

Section 8 is a futuristic FPS that brings strategy and tactics to the genre in a game where players can modify the battlefield on the fly. You are part of an elite infantry squad with a penchant for taking on suicide missions that no one else will tackle. Last year TimeGate settled an Section 8 trademark infringement dispute with ABC Studios over an upcoming Section 8 TV series, and earlier this month it took on Paramount in a similar suit over a Section 8 interactive web series, which has now been settled.

Section 8 is a futuristic FPS that brings strategy and tactics to the genre in a game where players can modify the battlefield on the fly. You are part of an elite infantry squad with a penchant for taking on suicide missions that no one else will tackle. Last year TimeGate settled an Section 8 trademark infringement dispute with ABC Studios over an upcoming Section 8 TV series, and now it has filed suit against Paramount for calling off negotiations and then announcing its own Section 8 interactive web series.

U.S. District Court judge Leonard Davis has dismissed a patent-infringement lawsuit against Nintendo (and similarly against Microsoft) brought by Fenner Investments, which alleged that the Wii and its controllers, as well as the GameCube, infringed on one of its patents.

Last year Gibson, one of the exclusive partners of the Guitar Hero franchise, filed a lawsuit against Activision, EA/MTV Games and various retailers, claiming the game infringed on its 1999 patent for technology simulating a live performance using a musical instrument. Activision countersued, asking the U.S. District Court of California to declare Gibson's patent invalid and to bar it from seeking damages, and last Thursday, the U.S. District Court of Central California did just that.

In June of last year, Anthony Puzo, son of The Godfather author Mario Puzo, sued Paramount Pictures for $1 million in damages for breach of contract over unpaid revenue from EA's video game adaptation of the movie trilogy. Reports have it that Paramount has now settled the case out of court with the plaintiff, although no terms were revealed.

Nintendo of America and Nyko Technologies announced they have settled a lawsuit brought by Nintendo regarding Nintendo’s intellectual property rights relating to its popular Nunchuk controller and Nyko's identical looking Kama wireless controller.

Last month THQ filed a lawsuit with the US District Court of Central California against Activision, claiming the SCORE International Baja 1000 box cover was too similar to its own BAJA title released the month before, and now the two companies have settled the case out of court with Activision admitting something was afoot as it has changed the official retail box to something not so identical.

Back in Sept. Maryland resident Melissa Thomas filed a $5 million class action lawsuit against EA in regard Spore's intrusive DRM policies. According to GamePolitics two more suits have been filed, one revolving "the inclusion of undisclosed, secretly installed DRM protection measures with a program that was freely distributed" (the Spore demo), and the other by a Sims player calling it "immoral, unethical, oppressive, unscrupulous," stating that it causes all sort of computer problems that were not there before.