Intellectual Property
Apr. 19, 2012
Karin Pagnanelli
See more on Karin PagnanelliMitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP Los Angeles Litigator
In the rapidly growing video game world, new legal questions arise at every turn. And Pagnanelli is helping to answer them.
In the first case of its kind before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, she applied a First Amendment argument to the use of trademarks in video games. Her opponents claimed that Pagnanelli's client, the creators of "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," infringed the trademark of a Los Angeles-based strip club featured in the game. Pagnanelli won the case on summary judgment, and the appellate court affirmed. E.S.S. Entertainment 2000 Inc. v. Rock Star Video Inc., 547 F.3rd 1095 (9th Cir., 2008).
She's also successfully represented video game companies Nexon America Inc. and Blizzard Entertainment Inc. in cases in which she says defendants had developed technological ways to "cheat" her clients' proprietary games. Nexon America Inc v. Hein, CV10-09689 (C.D. Cal., filed Dec.16, 2010) and Blizzard Entertainment Inc v. Ceiling Fan Software LLC, CV12-00144 (C.D. Cal., filed Jan. 27, 2012)
Looking forward to the year to come, Pagnanelli expects to continue facing interesting issues like those.
"I am excited about a number of cases in the video game industry," she wrote in an email, "that hopefully will create new ground to allow the industry to better protect its content from pirates and circumvention."
In one of Pagnanelli's most important cases in 2011, she defended Sony Corp. in a multimillion-dollar copyright infringement action that software developer CYBERSitter LLC launched against the Chinese government, two Chinese software makers and seven major computer manufacturers, including Sony. The plaintiff alleged that a Web filtering program the Chinese government had ordered installed on every computer in the country, infringed code in CYBERSitter's filtering software. Pagnanelli said the settlement she achieved was "favorable" for her client. CYBERsitter LLC v. The People's Republic of China et al, CV10-00038 (C.D. Cal., filed Jan. 5, 2010).
Ultimately, the litigator, who co-chairs Mitchell Silberberg's intellectual property practice, said she'd rather keep her clients out of court.
"My proudest accomplishments this year actually do not involve filed cases," she wrote. "Rather, they involve cases where we were able to get a great result for the client without ever having had to file a lawsuit."
- ERICA E. PHILLIPS
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