Legal Dimensions of the Gaming Industry

I love it.

I do think that as you were talking, a couple of things that came to mind is I think about all of these video games that I've played over the years, and I realized, as a person who's played the game, I never really thought about, like, all the intellectual property involved with the games.

And that may be one that people are familiar with, but are there-- what other types of legal conversations are happening as, let's say, games are being developed or concepts are being created for some of these games?

Sure, and I, this, I love talking about this with people because it's funny.

So of course, yes, you have your intellectual property.

There's a lot of copyright, trademark, right of publicity, patent issues that can come up.

But people are surprised on two fronts legally with gaming, maybe three.

First of all, they're surprised that it's such an international practice.

But if you think about it with the internet and the advent of connected games, that you're really dealing with a global practice.

And so I've been to meetings all, all over the world where y- you gather all the international practitioners.

And also because while we have a lot of US-based video game companies, when I worked for Wargaming, they were originally founded in Belarus, and then they had offices in 26 countries all over the world, so it's a very global practice.

And so I was part of a global legal team that had a lot of different practitioners from different parts of the world.

The other area where people are surprised with video game law is that video game companies, like other companies, have normal functions in them, that it's still, to your point, somebody has to run payroll, somebody has to have to have an HR department, have to have finance, have to have peop- somebody working operations in the office to make sure everybody has snacks.

I'm telling you, in the tech industry, the snack thing is serious, the perks and stuff.

The third area where people are usually surprised with game law is that it's just also so many different types of law.

I was at a conference years ago, and one of my friends from law school was there, and I was on a panel of lawyers at a game convention.

And someone asked the question, "Why do video game companies, why don't any of them do real money cash out?" From the game.

And we just went down the line of know your customer banking laws, anti-money laundering, all these different things, and my friend from law school, I thought her eyes were gonna bug out of her head because she was like, "I had no idea you're dealing with so many different areas of the law." And never mind data privacy.

There's just-- And you never know.

And then to the normal office function thing, office leases.

Yeah.

Things like that.

Negotiating with landlords.

When I was at Wargaming, I was, like I said, I was US general counsel.

I was a department of one for several years for the entire United States, and it's a lot of work, and it's-- But it's fun.

I love it.

I do think that as you were talking, a couple of things that came to mind is I think about all of these video games that I've played over the years, and I realized, as a person who's played the game, I never really thought about, like, all the intellectual property involved with the games.

And that may be one that people are familiar with, but are there-- what other types of legal conversations are happening as, let's say, games are being developed or concepts are being created for some of these games?

Sure, and I, this, I love talking about this with people because it's funny.

So of course, yes, you have your intellectual property.

There's a lot of copyright, trademark, right of publicity, patent issues that can come up.

But people are surprised on two fronts legally with gaming, maybe three.

First of all, they're surprised that it's such an international practice.

But if you think about it with the internet and the advent of connected games, that you're really dealing with a global practice.

And so I've been to meetings all, all over the world where y- you gather all the international practitioners.

And also because while we have a lot of US-based video game companies, when I worked for Wargaming, they were originally founded in Belarus, and then they had offices in 26 countries all over the world, so it's a very global practice.

And so I was part of a global legal team that had a lot of different practitioners from different parts of the world.

The other area where people are surprised with video game law is that video game companies, like other companies, have normal functions in them, that it's still, to your point, somebody has to run payroll, somebody has to have to have an HR department, have to have finance, have to have peop- somebody working operations in the office to make sure everybody has snacks.

I'm telling you, in the tech industry, the snack thing is serious, the perks and stuff.

The third area where people are usually surprised with game law is that it's just also so many different types of law.

I was at a conference years ago, and one of my friends from law school was there, and I was on a panel of lawyers at a game convention.

And someone asked the question, "Why do video game companies, why don't any of them do real money cash out?" From the game.

And we just went down the line of know your customer banking laws, anti-money laundering, all these different things, and my friend from law school, I thought her eyes were gonna bug out of her head because she was like, "I had no idea you're dealing with so many different areas of the law." And never mind data privacy.

There's just-- And you never know.

And then to the normal office function thing, office leases.

Yeah.

Things like that.

Negotiating with landlords.

When I was at Wargaming, I was, like I said, I was US general counsel.

I was a department of one for several years for the entire United States, and it's a lot of work, and it's-- But it's fun.