Zombies Attack!!: Is a Japanese Video Game Too Similar To 'Dawn of the Dead'?

Posted by Eriq Gardner

Awards season is almost over, so we can now bestow the prize for this year's most gruesome claim of fair use to...wait for it....Japanese video game maker Capcom!

In this complaint filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Capcom says that "humans battling zombies in a shopping mall" is a "wholly unprotectible idea" by copyright standards.

Capcom, represented by Rodger Cole at Fenwick & West, is seeking a declaratory judgment and attorneys' fees after New Line Cinema complained in a letter about similarities between Capcom's "Dead Rising" video game and George A. Romero's 1979 film and 2004 remake, "Dawn of the Dead." Capcom is seeking to stop The MKR Group, which claims to be the exclusive owner of the copyright to the films, from asserting its intellectual property, including copyright and trademark.

The complaint says that the parties have unsuccessfully engaged in discussions in an attempt to resolve the matter. Capcom also stamped a disclaimer on its video games that read, "This game was not developed, approved or licensed by the owners or creators of George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead."

MKR's outside counsel allegedly sent a letter and a copy of a draft complaint to Capcom, Microsoft, and Best Buy.

Will the judge offer guidance as to when video game makers must license rights from films with similar themes? More interestingly, does the battle for humankind die by the judicial hammer or live on through the spirit of intellectual obviousness? Don't expect these issues to ever rest in peace.

Comments

[Curtis]

I understand the legal tensions, but zombies in a mall can simply not be copy written. Capcom is one of my favorite companies for games. I just wish they would've been a little more origional with their ideas, they even had to say in the begining of the game it had noting to to do with George A Ramero. Which means they understood what they were doing. But still they had the right to make what game they wanted. The gist of my opinion is, great game concept, should've gone about it differently.

[Thork]

Well Curtis it's not that Capcom had full and outright intent to base a game on Dawn of the Dead or even that the similarities could possibly offend MKR, in that they put a disclaimer on the cover. It's actually a result of the legal threat that MKR gave Capcom before the game's release to tried to stop the launch of Dead Rising. That's when Capcom decided to add the disclaimer to Dead Rising.

[carmen alduende]

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[Viddiction]

Intellectual Property Rights is such a burning issue that many companies tend to take it lightly.But at the same time , it is really difficult to break away from the so called formula games which always have a wider appeal among the audiences.