Maxim Ali has provided his comments on protecting intellectual property in game development

In an article for ‘Games Mail.ru’, Senior Associate at Maxima Legal and Specialist in IP/IT, Maxim Ali talked about the ongoing matter involving the intellectual property rights to ‘Korsari’.

Dmitry Arkhipov, developer and publisher of the first three parts of adventure game ‘Korsari’ accused the developer, Black Sun Game Publishing, of misusing the registered Korsari trademark and brand.

Maxim Ali drew attention to the fact that Black Sun Game Publishing had sought to make use of the trademark on the basis that the registration of the trademark had not been used for a period of three years and therefore had lapsed.

However, according to Maxim, potentially Black Sun Game Publishing’s conduct may have breached consumer protection laws, since the publisher has been positioning the release of the game as being ‘Korsari 4’ rather than simply ‘korsari’.  Furthermore regular updates to the existing games may have prompted anti-monopoly proceedings to be opened into unfair competition on Black Sun Game Publishing’s part. “In such an event, even if the court rules that the registration of the trademark had lapsed, the publisher could be issued with a substantial fine and an order from the anti-monopoly authorities to resolve any violations”, concluded Maxim Ali.

To read the full article (in Russian), please see the following website.