week 12: Activision Wins 1st Amendment Lawsuit

Activision, the company famous for making Call of Duty, one of the biggest video game franchises of all time has won a lawsuit that was filed against them for their use of Humvee's in their video games.

AM General, the manufacturer of the popular military vehicle sued Activision in 2017, on the ground that using Humvee's in their game was copyright infringement, and falsely adverting the use of their vehicles in the games.

AM's claim was dismissed by the district judge this week. "That decision hinged in part on a 1989 precedent that established that artistic works could make reference to outside trademarks as long as the usage was relevant to the work and did not "explicitly mislead as to the source of the content or work." (arstechnia.com).

Had the game's use of the vehicles been "explicitly misleading", then that would trump Activision's first amendment right, as it would have been false advertising. The judge even stated that if Activision's artistic goal is to portray realistic war in their video game, then the use of Humvee's is helping them creative their artistic attempt to portray realism.

Source:
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/04/us-judge-first-amendment-protects-call-of-dutys-use-of-humvees/