Page 7 - LA Games Conference Materials

eSports
As part of its industry-leading Social Media and Games Team, Sheppard Mullin has a particular focus on the cutting-edge legal issues with eSports. The depth of Sheppard Mullin’s game industry experience, coupled with its traditional entertainment team and forward-looking advice on legal and business issues arising from eSports, truly establishes us as an industry leader on advising companies on eSports legal issues.
Legality of Business Models — As the eSports industry adopts more innovative business models, the need to carefully consider federal and state legal issues increases. Sheppard Mullin has numerous attorneys who routinely advise clients on the legality of cutting-edge business models that require an analysis of federal and state lottery and gambling laws. For many clients, Sheppard Mullin has conducted a 50 state analysis and advised on the legality of eSports business models and game features, at both the state and federal level.
Leagues/Rights of Publicity — Sheppard Mullin’s rich experience in representing professional sports leagues, athletes and performers, coupled with its games industry expertise, uniquely positions us to address some of the emerging issues relating to eSports leagues and players’ rights of publicity.
IP Issues — Sheppard Mullin’s game team has one of the deepest and broadest groups of IP lawyers in the country, and routinely advises clients on the cutting-edge IP issues with fantasy sports.
• Patents — many of the technologies, processes and business models resulting from the rapid innovation in the eSports industry are patentable; we help companies assess the unique aspects of their fantasy sports offerings, develop and implement patent filing strategies and handle patent licenses, sales/acquisitions and patent litigation
• Copyrights/Trademarks – various aspects of eSports can implicate copyright and trademark issues; we help companies develop and implement strategies to protect their own copyright and trademark rights and minimize the likelihood of infringing others; some of the issues include:
Important Agreements — the significance of various agreements in the eSports space cannot be overstated. Form agreements do not work. Most agreements need to be customized to address the particular facts. Our team has significant experience drafting all types of agreements, including player contracts, terms of service, streaming/broadcast agreements and much more.
• live streaming
• rights to broadcast game play