World of Warcraft Being Sued by Chinese Company
By Andrew on Saturday, August 25th, 2007 at 12:41 AM PST In Blizzard, Game Companies, Games, World of Warcraft
Blizzard Entertainment may be in trouble. The stylish letters in World of Warcraft could end up costing them a lot of money.
Chinese character fonts are at the basis of this lawsuit, brought on by Founder, a Chinese company which develops character fonts. Apparently, the Chinese version of WoW uses the character fonts without permission, and Founder found a reason to sue.
Blizzard had no immediate comment, though its attorneys said the matter is still under investigation. Should the lawsuit turn out in Founder’s favor, it will possibly be a costly result for Blizzard with 3.5 million subscribers to WoW in China.
via Comcast News
I think Blizzard can beat this if the Chiness copywrite is not international. China’s government just banned role playing games where players kill each other, so bye bye Blizzrd in China. (Not to imply that it won’t be used in China despite the ban.) So, since no one in China can play the game (legally) where is the damage to the font owner? Note: There may be some tiny damage to the owner but Chinese charators are not widely used outside of China. My guess is a good lawyer could get Blizzrd off for maybe $10,000.00
George B, I can find nothing on what you said here –> “China’s government just banned role playing games where players kill each other”
I can only find info on Chinese government banning minors from playing online games with player killing. Can you explain?