Late last week the Ninth Circuit upheld in full Epic Games' victory over Google in their titanic antitrust clash.  But with less than a fortnight left before a permanent injunction was set to fundamentally reshape the Android marketplace, Google did manage to secure an emergency administrative stay of enforcement as the platform giant continues to appeal the decision.  While it is unclear how successful these efforts will ultimately be given this outcome, this is yet another major victory for Epic Games.  In this blog post resident storyteller Jonathan Downing explains the court's reasoning and what this might mean for the parties—and other interested publishers—going forward.

In June, the Supreme Court released a whirlwind of opinions that could dramatically reshape our nation, including Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton (2024). This case—outwardly about regulating minors’ access to pornographic material—has the potential to disrupt established Free Speech protections, makes way for further regulation of the internet, and potentially impacts creative expression in games.

To put it mildly, there has been a lot going on in 2025, and that's no different in the games litigation space.  From the First Amendment to fair use, major cases over the last six months have run the gamut of important topics for the industry.  While putting all the different filings, holdings, and decisions together in one place would be a tall order indeed, our plucky team at Tyz Law Group's Games Law Blog has collected and compiled several of the most significant and impactful developments in games litigation in a mid-year roundup.  Take a look!

Two of the year's major annual games industry conferences—the DICE Summit and GDC—have now come and gone.  Tyz Law Group's resident Storyteller, Jonathan Downing, managed to survive both events relatively intact, and has gathered his observations and thoughts in our latest Games Law Blog post.

Public Domain Day 2025 saw many famous and noteworthy works enter the public domain, including numerous firsts in cinema and some developments in a certain famous cartoon mouse.  In this blog post, we go into what new works have fallen into the public domain, and how the unique nature of character copyrightability is affected by that status.

California's new disclosure requirements for the sale of digital goods are set to be enforced beginning in January, so game publishers and other content providers who do business in the state should take notice now.  In this article we dive into the background and function of the new law, and provide some practical takeaways for publishers to consider when making updates to their terms and storefronts.

Last month, the District Court for the Northern District of California issued its permanent injunction against Google in the closely watched Epic v. Google case.  This case had a much different outcome from Epic's parallel litigation against Apple, and while Google has successfully moved to pause enforcement of the injunction, it seems likely that it may have far broader implications for the Android marketplace than the narrower Apple injunction.  And while the actual impact of the injunction remains uncertain while Google appeals the decision, there are some practical takeaways for app developers to begin considering.

Last month, the California Attorney General announced its third public settlement under the CCPA since the law's enforcement began in 2020, this time against mobile app developer Tilting Point for alleged privacy violations in their child-directed SpongeBob SquarePants mobile game, resulting in injunctive terms and a half-million-dollar fine. What lessons can other game developers and publishers take from this, and what steps can they take to guard against a similar investigation and enforcement? Take a dive with us into the turbulent waters of privacy law in our latest blog post to find out.

On April 19, 2024, after a highly publicized trial, the jury in the copyright infringement case Hayden v. 2K Games, Inc. returned a verdict finding that an implied license existed as to the depiction of tattoos inked by the plaintiff on three professional basketball players in the NBA 2K video game franchise.

Last week, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) held the 2024 DICE Summit, an annual event for developers, publishers, media representatives, and other people in the games industry to come together and interact face to face for a few intensive days of meetings, pitches, and networking.

On December 11, 2023, the jury in the Epic Games, Inc. v. Google LLC et al antitrust litigation handed Epic a significant victory after less than four hours of deliberation, finding that Google wielded unlawful monopoly power within the Android app distribution and in-app billing services.

On November 1, 2023, the Ninth Circuit delivered its decision in the appeal of Hanagami v. Epic Games Inc., reversing the Central District’s grant of defendant Epic Games’ motion to dismiss in the copyright infringement lawsuit brought by choreographer Kyle Hanagami.

On September 7, 2023, Microsoft announced a new “Copilot Copyright Commitment” for users of its suite of AI-powered tools, following their earlier “AI Customer Commitments” policy statement in June.

With the upcoming release of Starfield, developer Bethesda has advertised that its game will have “full mod support,” even claiming it will be a modder’s “paradise.”

Mere months after making waves with a historic $520 million penalty against Epic Games (which we wrote about previously here), the FTC has followed up with another $20 million penalty against Microsoft in connection with its Xbox Live service.

The Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit recently affirmed the 2021 district court ruling in Epic Games v. Apple.

With the specter of COVID looming less large over the proceedings, this year’s Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) had the potential to be a return to the Conference’s “glory days” as a place where game developers and lawyers from all over the world could meet, exchange stories, and generally party the night away.

At the end of February, the U.S. Copyright Office made waves again when it announced it was revoking a comic book author’s copyright registration in the AI-generated images used within their book Zarya of the Dawn.

Tyz Law Group attorneys Joe Newman and Jonathan Downing announced a new collaboration with popular gaming YouTube channel Extra Credits, discussing the legal issues surrounding the use of artificial intelligence for content creation, particularly in the world of video games.

The Dungeons & Dragons (“D&D”) Players Handbook for the game’s Third Edition, first published in 2000 by Wizards of the Coast (“Wizards,” parent company Hasbro), contains a chapter dedicated to spells that characters may learn and cast within the game.