Intellectual Property Rights: Open Access

Abstract

PokémonGo: A Virtual Reality Nightmare for Intellectual Property Law?

Daniel Bang

At the end of this year, every news channel will ask itself the following question: what will the year of 2016 be remembered for? Will the year of 2016 be remembered for the American Presidential election campaign? The terror attacks in France? The Breexit? Or PokémonGo? For instance, if a “pokéstop” or “gym” displays a company’s registered trademark, does this constitute a trademark infringement? In order to further examine these issues, the concept of the game needs to be explained. It seems like courts are starting to realize that the Roberts test may not be sufficient any more to deal with the evolution of virtual reality games, and as a result, there exists a interesting “muddling of the lines” occurring faster than the courts can follow.