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 Marvel Sues Cryptic/NCSoft over City of Heros

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T O P I C    R E V I E W
Petrified-OMO Posted - Nov 12 2004 : 16:50:40
Becuase people can make characters similar to the Hulk and Wolverine.

Likewise, Marvel is making a Super Hero MMO with Vivendi (and Sony?). Guess they want to start blaming someone for it's failure before it comes out.
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Petrified-OMO Posted - Nov 13 2004 : 00:30:34
I wrote in the official thread about it as well. The main area that is clearly infringing would be Claws scrappers. Those are undeniably 'wolverine-esque'. Had the claws been different, Marvel's case would have been much weaker. I also think this will kill any plans to develop 'web slinging' of any form. Right now they have not mainly due to technical limitations. I am sure those limitations will be extended - you can bet all the 'Spydoorm4n' clones will jump on it.

One other possible problem is this: future lawsuits if this pans out. I'm sure DC could make similar claims. Whether they are foolish enough to do so is another matter.

You are right in that a lot of the more stable players may be completely turned off with the lawsuit, but it will be just the ones who did the Clones who travel over to the MMO where they CAN be Spiderman or Wolverine in every detail... just what you want, 100 identical wolverines.

If there is a settlement, at most it will be preventing certain costume combinations from being made as well as art changes and hopefully, if Cryptic is smart, an understanding that any future percieved infringements for new characters Marvel creates or alters their costume on existing ones will not be considered infringing.
Old Bugger OMO Posted - Nov 12 2004 : 17:58:32
I ment PR disater for Marvel. Its free advertizing for CoH.
Fossil-OMO Posted - Nov 12 2004 : 17:51:38
there's no such thing as bad pub. I think if they do sue, CoH will gain
more subs.
Old Bugger OMO Posted - Nov 12 2004 : 17:35:47
Read about this. Someone on CoH forum brought up a intersting point. This is about trademark infringment not copyright. That means that if someone is using a trademarked immage and you dont sue you lose the rights to that trademark. This is why Disney is so agressive about it.

They are suing on the basis that CoH allows players to make heroes that look (and have powers) almost identical to their trademarked images and since they are coming out with a Marvel Universe MMORPG This will undercut the value of their game.

The Argument from CoH devs is (or should be) that the engine allows for a huge variety of char looks and cambinations of superhero like powers. If they where to limit the ability of players to make heroes that look simular to every trademarked comic book hero then they would lose much of that variety. They also have a ban in the user agreement against the use of trademarked names. They are also active in deleting those char when they find them.

In messing with the hero creation system I suspect they did go out of their way to specificly allow the creation of many of the most popular Marvel and DC heroes. The only notable exeption is Spider Man. From what I hear they tried to put web slinging in the game but had too many technical problems with it. Its intersting that thats the only popular Marvel hero you cant make a near copy of in the costume maker.

I have seen some very good duplicates of popular heroes. Most can be clearly identified at a glance. Here are some examples..
Hulk
Batman
Robin
Wolverine
Storm
Beast
Superman
Fantastic Four

I hate to say it but I think there is some merit to their claim. I expect it will be settled out of court unless Marvel wants to try to "take down" NCsoft to kill the compettion. Doubt they would succeed since NCsoft is wrather large. Also I dont think their suit holds enough merit to have the game shut down. I think they could recover some damages and mabe have some minor changes in costume design implemented but thats about it.

I also think this will turn into a PR disaster for them. By attacking CoH they are going to anger their largest potentual fan base. Many players have already said they dont care how good the Marvel game is they will never play it. They see this is a cheap attack and money grab.
BackPainOMO Posted - Nov 12 2004 : 17:21:52
guess they'll save all the rest of the characters that you can pretty much copy for follow on lawsuits if they lose this one.

Actually, no "Hulk hairdo" is possible that I can recall. you can't get torn clothing, and although, Hulk has been green and grey, the colors of the spectrum are pretty difficult to copyright, I would guess. I think they'll have an easier time with Wolverine, as you can copy him with a lot more detail, from the striped clothing of the appropriate colors to the head wing thing he has (pretty close), and the blades, although I'm not sure the wrist blades exist in the game by themselves, do they?

Maybe NCSoft should countersue them for trying to copy their MMO superhero game. Marvel is a day late to the playing field. Although, I believe they have tried to make a few superhero PC games in the past that have all been duds. You can't beat them, sue them.

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