Multiplayer Network Innovations, LLC has added Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Tecmo Koei Games Co., Ltd., Iron Galaxy Studios, LLC, Tencent Holdings Limited, and Tencent America to its growing list of court room combatants in multiple lawsuits claiming that these companies violate an abstract patent for "Interactive Multiple Player Game System and Method of Playing a Game Between at Least Two Players," or "MNI."

Testimony in the trial of a 19-year-old from Melbourne, Australia man who stabbed a homeless person to death in January after an altercation, seems to be trying to create the defense that Call of Duty had a strong influence on the defendant's state of mind. Easton George Woodhead is facing a murder charge for repeatedly stabbing Morgan Wayne "Mousey" Perry at an encampment of homeless people living on the banks of Melbourne's Yarra River.

Lawyers for Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom have filed a response to the U.S. government's attempt to size his assets, saying that it is trying to claim his property and charge him with a crime that is non-existent under current U.S. laws about copyright infringement.

According to Time's Techland, flight attendants are suing to reinstitute a ban on using electronics during flights. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, the largest union representing flight attendants in the United States, filed a lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Friday, saying that the federal agency should have upheld a ban on the use of smartphones and tablets during takeoff and landing.

Target 12 News out of Providence, Rhode Island is reporting that the Rhode Island Secretary of State's office held its first hearing focusing on the alleged lobbying activities of former 38 Studios board member Thomas Zaccagnino on Thursday. Zaccagnino was not present at the hearing, according to the report.

Lindsay Lohan's lawsuit against Rockstar/Take-Two Interactive for her alleged depiction in Grand Theft Auto V has shifted its focus to be compatible with New York State law (the jurisdiction where the lawsuit was filed) and the amended complaint filed by Lohan's lawyers has gone from 10 to 67 pages long, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

A 20-year-old who was charged with lying to investigators (obstruction of justice) about his supporting role in the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing, tried to defend his actions by saying he "was too high" to remember, according to MSN.

According to the Miami Herald Tribune's On Tap in The Capital political column, the "Xbox murders" case is being heard by the Florida Supreme Court today. The Florida Supreme Court will hear appeal arguments in the case of Jerone Hunter, one of the four men convicted of brutally murdering six people in a Deltona, Florida home in 2004.

Back in August SNK Playmore filed a criminal complaint against Square Enix, alleging that the company had engaged in "criminal copyright infringement" by using over 100 instances of unauthorized depictions of SNK Playmore characters in its Hi Score Girl manga.

This also led to the Consumer and Economic Crime Division of the Osaka, Japan Police raiding the local offices of Square-Enix to gather evidence.

The U.S. Supreme Court has chosen not to hear a "rights of publicity" case - a topic it hasn't addressed for decades involving Electronic Arts. The Supreme Court on Thursday denied EA's request to appeal a 9th Circuit Court ruling for a class of college athletes led by former Nebraska and Arizona State quarterback Sam Keller (Keller v. EA).

Keller sued the company and the NCAA in 2009 for using his image and likeness without compensating him in EA's NCAA-branded football and basketball games.

The wife of former Red Sox Pitcher and 38 Studios founder Curt Schilling is asking that a family computer auctioned off in an estate sale after the studio went bankrupt be returned, according to a report in the Providence Journal. Shonda Schilling is saying that the computer was auctioned off by accident, but some seem to be disputing that.

According to documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and discussed at length in a new post on the ACLU's official blog by Alex Abdo (a staff attorney in the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project), most of the National Security Agency's (NSA) authority to collect data and spy on both international and domestic targets is derived from Executive Orde

The United States District Court for the Central District of California has invalidated the patent claims of McRO, Inc. (d.b.a. Planet Blue) against Activision and other parties in the video games industry. The two patents invalidated by U.S. District Judge George H. Wu concerned processes for "automatically animating lip synchronization and facial expressions of 3D characters."

The fight over attorney Michael Corso's part in allegedly lobbying Rhode Island officials is far from over, as highlight by the Providence Journal. Last week, hearing officer Louis DeSimone issued a decision giving attorney Michael Corso seven days to file lobbyist disclosure reports or pay a $2,000 fine.

Activision Blizzard announced this morning that it has every intention of filing a motion to dismiss what it categorizes as a frivolous lawsuit filed by former Panamanian dictator and convicted murderer Manuel Noriega. But the oddest twist to the story is who Activision Blizzard has hired to handle the case: former New York City Mayor, U.S. Attorney for New York, and Republican Candidate for President, Rudy Giuliani.

Another day, another patent case tossed out on its ear thanks to the Supreme Court ruling on Alice v. CLS. This time out it's Lumen View Technology, who had its case against Santa Barbara-based startup FindTheBest thrown out. At first the company approached FindTheBest asking it to pay a settlement of $50,000 for a "do it on a computer" patent related to data matchmaking.

Candy Crush Saga maker King has settled its copyright case against 6waves, has received an undisclosed sum of money, and has ensured the closure of 6waves' Farm Epic and Treasure Epic games - two games it claims were infringing on its copyrights.

"We are pleased that this matter has now been resolved," commented King's chief legal officer Robert Miller.

The US Supreme Court's June 26 decision in Alice v. CLS Bank is having a profound effect on computer-related patent fights; the federal courts have already invalidated 11 "do-it-on-a-computer" related patents since that ruling, according to this Ars Technica report.

According to the Providence Journal, the Rhode Island Superior Court has denied a request by Wells Fargo to stop the progress of the state’s ongoing lawsuit against those involved in the failed 38 Studios loan deal while the Rhode Island Supreme Court weighs whether a 2014 law that allows for streamlining settlements is legal under the state's constitution.

The U.S. District Court in Seattle Washington has tossed out Mendoza v. Microsoft, a case filed in 2013 over alleged violations of privacy by Microsoft on its Xbox Live service for Xbox 360. U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman threw the case out on Thursday on the grounds that plaintiffs lacked legal standing and largely based their allegations on what the court categorized as "conjecture" about Microsoft's privacy policies.

Yesterday Electronic Arts took its case defending itself against former NFL players (Davis v. EA - PDF) to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (as detailed by The Recorder). EA Games argued Thursday before U.S. Court of Appeals that its portrayal of retired National Football League stars is protected by the First Amendment under "transformative use."

Yahoo announced this week that it wants to release 1,500 pages of documents related to a protracted court battle with the National Security Agency over its participation in the PRISM program. The NSA surveillance program was revealed last summer as part of the Edward Snowden leaks. During that time a leaked slide about PRISM showed that Yahoo was one of the program's first participants, and began contributing to the database in March of 2008.

An appellate case in court this week brought by former NFL players over the use of their likenesses in video games created by Electronic Arts could make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to William Ford, a professor who teaches intellectual property law at The John Marshall Law School in Chicago.

According to a new court filing from Sega (detailed quite nicely by Polygon), Gearbox Software studio founder and head Randy Pitchford did "whatever the fuck he likes" when it came to the marketing and promotion of Aliens: Colonial Marines.

GamesBeat reports that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has taken Valve Software to court over its "no refunds" policy on Steam.

According to a report in the San Francisco Examiner, the dentist who allegedly facilitated an arms trading deal between rebels in the southern part of the Philippines and a party in the United States represented by now-suspended California state senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco - pictured) has died.

Officials for the state of Rhode Island announced this week that its first settlement payment from its ongoing lawsuit with principles involved in the failed 38 Studios $75 million loan deal has been received. According to a Providence Journal report, the state received a $4.37 million check this week from the insurance company representing two of the 14 defendants in the case. After expenses, the state will be able to bank about $3.2 million.

Grand Theft Auto V maker Rockstar Games and its parent company Take-Two Interactive responded to Lindsay Lohan's lawsuit in a Manhattan Court filing on Tuesday. The companies said in their response to Lohan's lawsuit that the Hollywood star "filed [the lawsuit] for publicity purposes." They also called the lawsuit frivolous.

They are asking the court to dismiss the lawsuit and for Lohan to pay its legal fees.

The Rhode Island Secretary of State’s office held a hearing this morning in a continuation on the probe into possible lobbying violations by Providence attorney Michael Corso, according to WPRI Target 12 News. Corso represented 38 Studios to state officials without registering as a lobbyist in 2010, according to Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis.

Capcom is suing fellow Japanese developer and publisher Koei Tecmo for allegedly infringing on a number of its patents, according to a Sankei report translated by Siliconera. The patents relate to letting players in a new game import or unlock content from an older title and the use of a controller vibration to alert players of nearby enemies.