Bethesda settles lawsuit with Warner Bros. and Behaviour over ‘Westworld’ game

Bethesda Softworks has settled a lawsuit against Warner Bros. and developer Behaviour Interactive over a Westworld base-building game, which Bethesda alleges was a ripoff of its Fallout Shelter game. The company filed a lawsuit for copyright infringement, breach of contract, and unfair competition back in June 2018. Bethesda released a brief statement claiming they’ve reached an “amicable” agreement, but the company didn’t disclose the terms. The companies will bear the cost of attorney fees and the like and Bethesda dismissed its claims with prejudice, which means the same claims can’t be brought up again. Back in June, Bethesda accused Behaviour of using copyrighted code from Fallout Shelter to develop the Westworld game. That a bug found in the early version of Fallout Shelter, which Behaviour developed with Bethesda, was found in Westworld. But both Warner Bros. and Behaviour disputed this claim, saying the accusations were baseless.

Source: Gamastura + Polygon

Samsung Galaxy Note9 reportedly catches fire in a woman’s purse, lawsuit against company asks to cease sale of the phone

Review: Samsung Galaxy Note 9We’re two Note devices in since the whole Samsung Galaxy Note7 debacle and just last month at the Galaxy Note9 launch, the company assured that Note users “do not have to worry about the batteries anymore.” Samsung says the Note9’s battery is “safer than ever.” However, the company is now facing a lawsuit just barely a month since the launch.

The New York Post reports on NYC-based realtor Diane Chung’s case of her Note9 bursting into flames inside her purse earlier this September. The phone felt unusually hot when she was using it and when she placed it in her purse a few minutes later, it started “whistling” and let out thick smoke. The incident happened inside an elevator, leaving her panicked and the elevator filled with smoke. The phone burned her fingers as she tried to remove it from her purse. When she was able to kick the phone out of the elevator, a passerby was able to grab the device with a cloth and dumped it in a bucket of water.

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Bethesda files suit against Warner Bros, says ‘Westworld’ game infringes its copyright

Bethesda Softworks is suing Warner Bros. and Fallout Shelter co-developer Behaviour Interactive over the recently released Westworld mobile game. Bethesda claims it’s a “blatant rip-off” of Fallout Shelter. The game developer is suing for copyright infringement, breach of contract, and misappropriating trade secrets and it’s seeking a jury trial and damages. As elaborated in a suit filed in a Maryland U.S. District Court, Bethesda claims the game based on the popular HBO TV series “has the same or highly similar game design, art style, animations, features and other gameplay elements” as Fallout Shelter. And that Behaviour used “the same copyrighted computer code created for Fallout Shelter in Westworld” down to a bug seen in an early version of Fallout Shelter.

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BlackBerry accuses Facebook of infringement over its messaging patents

CNN

BlackBerry has filed a lawsuit in California against Facebook and its subsidiaries WhatsApp and Instagram for what it says is infringement of its messaging patents. The company says the social media company has “co-opted” its patented innovations related to security, user interface, and battery life. But Facebook brushes off the suit claiming it’s just a desperate move from the beleaguered company. "Blackberry's suit sadly reflects the current state of its messaging business," Paul Grewal, Facebook's deputy general counsel, said in a statement. "Having abandoned its efforts to innovate, BlackBerry is now looking to tax the innovation of others. We intend to fight."

The patents cited in the lawsuit describe the key elements of modern day messaging including those that deal with notifications for the total number of unread messages, photo tagging, and messaging time stamps. It hasn’t been cited how much BlackBerry is asking in terms of damages. But it seems seeking money from the patents isn’t the only motivation, the company seems to want to partner with Facebook. "As a cybersecurity and embedded software leader, BlackBerry's view is that Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp could make great partners in our drive toward a securely connected future," BlackBerry’s spokesperson said in the statement. "We continue to hold this door open to them."

Source: CNN