Wildcat Intellectual Property Holdings of Dallas, Texas has sued Wizards of the Coast in Federal Court claiming that the Hasbro subsidiary has violated its electronic trading-card patent by publishing "Magic: The Gathering Online." While Wildcat is suing Wizards of the Coast, it does not name Hasbro in its lawsuit.

You can't get blood from a stone, but the state of Rhode Island is going to try anyway. The state announced today that it has filed a lawsuit against Curt Schilling and various executives at the now bankrupt 38 Studios in an attempt to recoup the $75 million loan guarantee given to the studio to set up shop in Providence and create an MMO.

The judge hearing Apple's lawsuit against Amazon for having an "appstore" has expressed some strong skepticism in Apple's core arguments. Today in an Oakland federal court US District Judge Phyllis Hamilton expressed strong doubt that Apple will be able to prove its case that consumers are confused or deceived by Amazon's use of the word "Appstore." This is not a new view by Judge Hamilton, who said pretty much the same thing a year ago after hearing Apple's arguments and denied a request by the company for a preliminary injunction against Amazon.

Megaupload co-founder Kim Dotcom has launched a teaser site for "Mega" at Me.ga. Dotcom says that the placeholder site is already getting millions of hits despite offering very little to visitors beyond information on how it will work when it launches. Kim Dotcom claims that Mega will use encryption methods that make it so that only those users who are uploading something know what it is. By hiding what users are uploading, Dotcom hopes to avoid the long arm of U.S. law enforcement.

As promised, Mob Rules Games has released Haunts: The Manse Macabre as an open sourced project. In addition to releasing the source code for the game (so the community can work on it) they have also released a playable build of the game (Windows). The open source project can be found here.

A federal antitrust complaint filed by virtual-currency and payment-processing provider Kickflip (doing business as Gambit) claims that Facebook destroyed its business when it took over the virtual currency used in games on its social network. Prior to that move, Kickflip claims that it was a "leading virtual-currency and payment-processing provider to software developers that published games on Facebook and other social networks."

Last week we wrote a story about how the Center for Copyright Information (CCI) had named Stroz Friedberg to be its "impartial and independent technology expert" to review claims of copyright infringement as part of the new "Six Strikes" enforcement rules. The "Six Strikes" system was agreed upon by the MPAA, RIAA, and five major ISPs but one of the core tenets was that it would have an independent body to investigate the validity of claims of copyright infringement against file-sharers.

Serious Sam 3 publisher Devolver Digital is urging fans to openly criticize EA's newest Medal of Honor game for a free copy its first-person shooter.

"During this busy season of video game releases the team at Devolver Digital realize that not every game will live up to expectations. One such game has been Medal of Honor: Warfighter – yet another military shooter where cover is king and most folks spend their time peeking out from behind a wall or a strategically placed concrete barrier," a post on the Devolver site reads.

Former Gears of War designer and Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski is making the news today after tweeting a direct message to Capcom about "fixing" Resident Evil 6. Capcom released its latest horror survival action game on various platforms earlier this month to mostly mixed reviews. Bleszinski left Epic Games earlier this month after working at the company for 20 years, claiming that he needed to take a break before tackling the "next stage" of his career.

A minor oversight on the part of Namco Bandai Games related to Tekken Tag Tournament 2's Saudi Arabia stage, accidently used floor textures that have the word "Allah" in them. A tweet by a fan to producer Katsuhiro Harada pointed out the word:

"@Harada_TEKKEN Mr. Harada on the Saudi Stage there is Allah's name on the floor! can you please explain why?"

Unnamed sources speaking to C&VG are sounding alarm bells today that the United Kingdom may face a shortage of Nintendo's Wii U consoles when it is released in November. A "retail source" told CVG that the company he or she works for does not have enough Wii U units to fulfill pre-orders. That source claimed that they would be receiving around 25,000 units.

It looks like Foxconn is going to "take one for the team" in the controversy over under-age interns working at its factory in Yantai, China. This is the plant where Nintendo's Wii U is reportedly being put together, so Nintendo is very concerned about any public perceptions that it finds breaking China's labor laws concerning under-age workers acceptable.

Last week, Haunts: The Manse Macabre game developer Rick Dakan found that he had run out of money after successfully funding his game via a Kickstarter campaign. Obviously backers of the game were not pleased with this news and media outlets were quick to point out what happens to backers when a project they fund doesn't get completed (the general consensus being that they get screwed).

While DMA Design may have created the original game that became a worldwide phenomenon, the creators of the game credit a UK publicist with creating the buzz that helped the game jump onto the international stage. Mike Dailly, co-creator of the original Grand Theft Auto, said that infamous British publicist Max Clifford did a job of manipulating the press to gain GTA notoriety and publicity.

Research firm Cowen and Company analyst Doug Creutz says that Medal of Honor: Warfighter is "likely to be a major disappointment." Set for release in the US, Europe and Australia this week, the game is set to face a tough shooter market that includes heavyweights like Halo 4 and Call of Duty Black Ops II. With that in mind, Creutz think that Warfighter will be a disappointment in terms of its sales numbers.

Xbox Live's Larry Hryb released data from last night's polling on Xbox Live from those who watched the Presidential Debate through the service. Hyrb said that more than 100,000 Xbox LIVE members watched the second presidential debate online, and responded to approximately 70 polling questions in "real time." Viewers offered over 2,000,000 individual responses to poll questions, with most poll questions averaging 35,000 to 40,000 respondents per question.

An editorial in the UK edition of Huffington Post penned by Andrew Cole-Bulgin, Joint-CEO of Komixx claims that video games are "stunting children's imagination and inhibiting their ability to play together." The head of the children's television company says that he comes to this conclusion based on research the company conducted related to Toby's Travelling Circus, a new television program for children under the age of five.

While we would be hard pressed to attest to the validity or effectiveness of the ReConstitution 2012 interactive web app, we do find it more than a little amusing - mostly because of the way its creators describe it.

Ontario-based web services company Treehouse is getting ready to rock and troll. The company, who was awarded a vague patent (United States Patent No. 8,180,858) for the "Method And System For Presenting Data Over A Network Based On Network User Choices And Collecting Real-Time Data Related To Said Choices" (or the 858 patent as they refer to it in their lawsuit) has decided to sue Turbine in Delaware for violating the patent with its game Dungeons & Dragons Online. Interestingly enough, the patent was awarded on May 15, 2012.

Bridgestone Tires has responded to a Sony lawsuit claiming that a recent Bridgestone tire ad featuring actor Jerry Lambert infringed on its IP. Sony alleges that Lambert was playing fictional PlayStation executive Kevin Butler in its new ad which featured lab technicians playing Mario Kart on the Wii. According to a Bridgestone representative, the actor who plays Kevin Butler simply appeared in the commercial as one of the company's engineers.

Sources in the supply chain responsible for building the upcoming smaller version of Apple's iPad (the iPad Mini) are telling The Wall Street Journal that Apple has ordered 10 million iPad Minis for the run-up to Christmas. While Apple has yet to officially announce the smaller tablet device, it is widely known to exist because of so many leaks from various component suppliers around the world.

UK papers The Telegraph and the Daily Mail seem to be delighted with a new study from researchers at Brock University in Canada published in the journal Developmental Psychology. The study, which bases its findings on 1,492 adolescents surveyed from eight high schools in Ontario over a four year period. Researchers say that 51 percent of those surveyed were female, while 49 percent were male. Participants were ages 14- to 15-years-old at the start of the study and 17- or 18-years-old at its conclusion.

Microsoft has apparently decided that it will not use Microsoft Points - the popular currency of the current Windows Marketplace and Xbox Live - in its upcoming Windows 8 Marketplace for software purchases. Instead it will simply use U.S. dollars or whatever the currency of choice is in different regions. In previous Windows 8 beta releases Microsoft used its Points system for all video purchases and rentals.

Kevin Butler may once have been the face of Sony's PlayStation 3, PlayStation Network and the PSP platform as the fictitious Vice President of various made-up departments within the company division. But apparently Sony has decided to sue the man (actor Jerry Lamber) that plays Kevin Butler and his company - advertising firm Wildcat Creek - over the Kevin Butler IP. Sony claims that Wildcat used the character in an advertising campaign for Bridgestone Tires, with a "Butler-type character" wearing a lab coat testing out Mario Kart Wii.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have decided to capitalize on the release of Pokémon Black and White 2 (it was released this Sunday) with the release of a game that depicts the abuse Pokémon might go through in their own special web game called Pokémon Black and Blue. Their catchphrase for the game is "gotta free 'em all."

In one of the more unusual attacks on an opponent in this election cycle, the Republican party of Maine has decided that it would be a good idea to take Maine state Senate Democratic candidate Colleen Lachowicz to task for playing World of Warcraft. Apparently they don't know that over 10 million people around the world are playing the game daily, with millions playing here in the United States. The law of averages would also suggest that a fair amount of Maine's population also plays the game, but let's put that aside for now..

Popular porn destination YouPorn (NSFW) declared today that it will soon be on the Xbox 360 thanks to the introduction of Internet Explorer on Xbox Live later this year. Of course every other website will be accessible via Internet Explorer too - most notably GamePolitics - but you probably already knew that.

As is usually the case with UK paper The Daily Mail, they have taken a new study from the University of Pittsburgh about the relationship between sleep and insulin production and turned it into a commentary on how games are bad. In their headline they proclaim "Staying up all night playing video games 'puts teenagers at greater risk of diabetes.'" The horror.

South Korean publication Joongang News (by way of GamesBeat) may be reading WAY TOO MUCH into a meeting between Nexon, NCsoft and Valve Software in South Korea this week.

A report from Bloomberg claims that a number of major U.S. cable operators are planning on offering cloud-based gaming as early as next year. The cable companies and service providers that want to get into the game - according to the report - include AT&T, Verizon, Time Warner, and Comcast.