The Legal 500

Outwardly, the interactive entertainment industry is doing very well, with games sales receipts overtaking the Hollywood box office and a proliferation of media platforms leading to a surge in development and investment in the sector. Game-development companies are increasingly being bought out, and brought within the aegis of the big game publishers to alleviate the problem of rising costs.

However, there is considerable criticism of the publishers having creative control of game projects, with the fear that this produces spates of low-quality games following the success of an original breakthrough. A corollary of this has been an increase in the number of independent game developers who endeavor to use the internet as a platform to distribute their product.

Online games generally have boomed in popularity, mainly down to the enormous success of the World of Warcraft MMO game. The US games industry is looking for a way to compete with this franchise, and is increasingly looking into Asia for opportunities to sell. China in particular offers huge opportunities, not only to sell games, but also to acquire developers for relatively low costs. US game developers, then, are at something of a disadvantage. Usually small companies with little revenue, they tend to find the publishers are very much in the dominant position, able to extract considerable concessions in negotiation.

This is where the attorneys listed in this section come in. They are individuals at small firms - or even sole practitioners - who have a passion for the video-game industry and a strong desire to assist developers to get a fair deal. They work at cost-effective prices and forge close relationships with their clients. Although IP is often at the core of their expertise, they tend to be generalists, able to advise small start-up companies across their business needs. Most importantly, they have deep knowledge of the industry, often having worked in-house at a major entertainment or game company. Only a few attorneys have the requisite capabilities - those ranked here are the most prominent and knowledgeable advisors in the market.

T. H. Buscaglia and Associates

PRACTICE: ‘No one person knows our side of the gaming market as well, or cares as deeply about it as Tom’, say clients of Thomas Buscaglia, founder of T. H. Buscaglia and Associates. This practice has represented games developers since the early 1990s and it wins particular praise for ‘understanding the problems for a young company and being ultra-experienced at taking them through the early challenges that they simply can’t handle otherwise’.

Buscaglia continues to be one of the few attorneys in the country with the mix of capabilities to handle the combination of commercial and IP needs that small developers face. He is admitted to practice in Washington State, Florida and Washington DC, while his immersion in the gaming world has also been crucial to staying on top of this niche market. ‘Outstanding to work with’ and ‘virtually a member of our team since the beginning’, Buscaglia has been able to use this close involvement with the industry to build strong relationships with companies seeking these representations early in their growth.

Many of the matters on which Buscaglia acts are licensing and development contract negotiations, although the progressive nature of the gaming world ensures that he sees a variety of other mandates, such as providing IP audits to ensure clients have a solid base before they take the next step.

Further, Buscaglia has developed a package of services and information designed to guide developers through the processes they need to engage with before they go to publishers.

CLIENTS: Clients include AudioSurf, FishBeat, Hourglass Games, Roxor Games, Tripwire Interactive, and Zeitgeist Games.

INDIVIDUALS: Firm principal and chair of the International Games Developers Association, Thomas Buscaglia is a leader in this field and ‘games mastermind’. Clients say the ‘time he is willing to give and the efficiency with which he acts that set him apart from anyone else’.

Fierst, Pucci & Kane LLP

PRACTICE: Although gaming only represents a portion of the overall work that Boston firm Fierst, Pucci & Kane LLP undertakes in the entertainment industry, its clients see it as ‘first choice, maybe even the only real choice, for video-gaming representation’.

Given the rate at which the games market has been growing, and its inexorable ties to other facets of the entertainment industry, the practice has been superbly positioned to offer ‘top-level advice’ to a range of clients, looking to maneuver their franchises into the video-game arena. The palette of commercial and IP expertise that the team uses encompasses trademark, copyright and licensing, as well as sale and acquisition of studios and development companies. For example, Irrational Games, developers of Tribes, SWAT and BioShock, the group has acted on various video-game licensing deals, as well as the sale of the company to Take Two Interactive.

The practice’s workload ranges from one-off mandates for film and TV franchises with respect to merchandise to managing the gamut of issues for development studios, such as Shiny Entertainment, for which it has acted in all matters since 1993. Clients describe a ‘very brainy, very dedicated’ team and its ‘well-deserved reputation for knowing the industry inside out’.

International work remains a pillar of the team’s activity, and the geographical scope of its relationships and reputation have meant that even as some markets have quieted, the team has still been active for a significant bank of foreign clients. Work with FXLabs, the largest game company in India, on the game Inferno sits in the catalog of work, alongside a swathe of representations of developers in Europe.

The high profile the practice has built up can be attributed to its repeated presence on cutting-edge roles, such as advising on the development of Gamer’s Gate, a game download site, as well as its tight grip on the areas of the market where participation is in the ascendance.

CLIENTS: Clients of the firm include Paradox Entertainment, Paradox Interactive, Eurocom, Nival Interactive, Universal Studios, and Lyra Studios.

INDIVIDUALS: Clients rate name partner Frederick Fierst as one of the ‘finest games attorneys in the world’.

The Law Offices of James I Charne

PRACTICE: The Law Offices of James I Charne, through its eponymous founder, has carved out a niche in representing developers and designers in not just the video-game industry, but across the gamut of entertainment industries. The firm has one office in Santa Monica, California, although the reach of its reputation overseas is comparable to any other firm in this market.

While traditional game developers constitute a steady foundation for this side of the practice, the breadth of Charne’s work also encompasses small design studios, emerging technology companies and online companies in the entertainment sphere.

In one recent example, Charne acted for British company Natural Motion, which develops character animation for online and offline use, on several transactions as the company’s products have been integrated with other software and acquired up by leading games companies.

The practice blends expertise in IP and business law, attracting referrals and clients from around the world with Europe, in particular, a source of mandates. Indeed, recent work with Swedish developers Avalanche Studios has involved helping an IP-heavy company protect its output through the various stages of its development during and since the release of its first game in 2006.

CLIENTS: Charne’s clients include Bungie, Natural Motion, Fatalist and a whole host of domestic and overseas developers.

INDIVIDUALS: ‘A very important part of the developer community’, James Charne wins acclaim for his work in the industry, which dates back to working as a producer with Activision in the 1980s. Charne is ‘in tune with the essence of the clients’ product’, and ‘revered for his work unpicking legal points for those that are unfamiliar, without weighing down the whole process of actually making a game’. It is this reputation, combined with his high profile at the International Game Developers Assocation and former roles at the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, that has kept him at the forefront of the industry.