Yesterday social games developer Playfish filed suit against the Singaporean third-party item reseller GosuMall and its webhost Rackspace,
alleging copyright infringement, false designation of origin, trademark
infringement, unfair competition, dilution and injury to business
reputation, breath of contract, and intentional interference with
contractual relations. The suit was filed in US District Court in San
Antonio, Texas, as that is where Rackspace is headquartered.
Playfish alleges that items from its popular Pet Society game were resold by GosuMall while it was hosted on Rackspace servers in violation of Pet Society terms of service. Playfish also alleges that GosuMall also made unauthorized use of trademarked Pet Society images and sold the game's virtual currency at prices that undercut Playfish's own prices. Playfish claims to have requested that Rackspace force GosuMall cease its infringing activities, but that Rackspace failed to take adequate action.
According to the complaint filed by Playfish's legal counsel Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, GosuMall was selling 51 different Pet Society virtual items for prices that ranged from $3 to $150. Playfish initially contacted Rackspace regarding the infringing images and other concerns on July 8, resulting in the slight modification of two images on the GosuMall site and the removal of one image.
Playfish contacted Rackspace about GosuMall again on July 23, resulting in the entire site going offline for one day. When GosuMall came back online, its Pet Society section was removed. Within two days, though, GosuMall had reposted its Pet Society page at a modified web address that was still hosted on Rackspace servers.
Playfish claims that GosuMall's "willful and in bad faith" actions have damaged the company and so is suing for damages, recovery of all Pet Society-related profits obtained by GosuMall, attorney's fees and legal costs, and an injunction to prevent further sales of Pet Society items by GosuMall. Playfish has also asked the courts to order the immediate removal of GosuMall's Pet Society section and for GosuMall to turn all virtual Pet Society items in its possession to Playfish for "destruction."
Grey market RMT has been a longstanding problem for operators of subscription MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XI. This suit filed by Playfish is one of the first high-profile and detailed accounts of a social game operator taking legal action against a grey market RMT company for reselling its virtual items. Zynga also has several suits outstanding against grey market RMT resellers of poker chips for its Texas Hold 'Em game.
Subscription MMORPGs have had difficulty with efforts to shut down resale of virtual items as illegal, but social games that monetize by selling items directly to players may be able to bring different and more effective legal arguments to bear. Both Playfish's suit and the numerous Zynga lawsuits will be cases to watch in the course of the coming year, as major legal precedents regarding the status of virtual items under US law may be set here.
[This story originally appeared on VirtualGoodsNews.com.]
Comments