Earlier this month, we held our annual event for lawyers in the video games industry at our new offices in Savoy Court. We were delighted to welcome guests from across the industry, including from as far afield as the US and Germany.

The event covered recent legal developments in the games industry and the major talking points that are likely to affect the industry over the next 12 months and beyond.

It began with a presentation on the EU’s new Copyright Directive. Mark Nichols discussed Article 17 and the use of protected content by online content-sharing service providers. Alan Moss then discussed Article 20’s proposed contract adjustment mechanism and the risk of studios being exposed to future claims by authors or performers if their games are successful.
This was followed by a fascinating panel discussion on developments in the UK’s regulatory landscape chaired by Kostya Lobov. Our panellists, Tim Scott (Head of Policy and Public Affairs at UKIE), Victoria Fowler (Head of Legal – EMEA at Konami) and Vincent Scheurer (Commercial Director at Rebellion and Founder and Operations Director at Payload Studios) provided insightful opinions on the recent DCMS Select Committee report and other regulatory changes.

Yvonne Gallagher provided an employment law update on the issues surrounding IR35, employment status, #MeToo, diversity and trade union activity in the games industry.

Liam Haeburn-Little and Mike Jones discussed upcoming developments to EU consumer protection law, and the talks concluded with a litigation round-up presented by Kostya Lobov and Mark Nichols, who discussed recent cases which are of interest to the games sector, including Blizzard v Bossland and Sky v SkyKick.

The evening concluded with a drinks reception where our guests enjoyed networking and sharing their views on the topics discussed.

If you would like to learn more about our video games work, please contact a member of our Video games group.