Wizards of the Coast, the creators of the popular and long-running Magic: The Gathering card game, have issued a lawsuit against Cryptozoic and Hex Entertainment claiming its game, Hex: Shards of Fate, is a clone of its online title.
Wizards of the Coast has
revealed a statement regarding the lawsuit on their website, stating that “Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast vigorously protect our intellectual property." According to the statement Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast believe that Hex is in direct violation of the copyright, and that "while we appreciate a robust and thriving trading card game industry, we will not permit the misappropriation of our intellectual property” said Barbara Finigan, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Hasbro.
The company has apparently already tried contacting Cryptozoic, however the developer was unwilling to settle the matter. Hex: Shards of Fate originally
appeared on Kickstarter with a $300,000 goal, however exceeded well over that with $2,278,255 in funding. It is currently available as an early access title, and the developer has yet to comment on the lawsuit.
Posted 01:22pm 15/5/14
US copyright law does not protect the idea for a game, its name or title, or the method or methods for playing it. Nor does copyright protect any idea, system, method, device, or trademark material involved in developing, merchandising, or playing a game. Once a game has been made public, nothing in the copyright law prevents others from developing another game based on similar principles. Copyright protects only the particular manner of an author’s expression in literary, artistic, or musical form.