Games
Among the Most Active Transactional, Licensing and Litigation Games Practices in the World.
Fenwick has one of the most active Games practices of any law firm in the country. We represent pioneering companies spanning the industry’s ecosystem including publishers, developers, platform manufacturers and content providers in the interactive entertainment arena. From stealth startups to global leaders, our integrated and collaborative approach enables us to build deeply talented and experienced teams that can operate in lock-step with our most innovative digital game clients such as Epic Games, Jam City, Nexon, Niantic, Oculus VR, Razer, Riot Games, Supercell Oy and Twitch.
Why Leading Games Companies Choose Fenwick
We have a long history of serving the Games industry
We have been a leader in the Games industry for decades. Our start traces back almost 40 years ago when we took Electronic Arts from inception to IPO (and we continue to represent the company today). Since then, the industry has experienced extraordinary growth. We’ve been on the front lines throughout this exciting period, working with hundreds of games companies from initial concept through exit. From mobile, video games and social networking to content distribution and intellectual property rights, companies of all sizes in this rapidly evolving industry rely on us to help them navigate every stage of growth and resolve their complex legal and business issues. We provide a wide range of services around the world for companies in the industry, including:
- Advertising
- Corporate formation and financing
- Cross-border agreements
- Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain
- eSports
- Executive compensation & employee benefits
- Game development and publishing deals
- Inbound content and brand licenses
- In-game currencies
- IP strategy and portfolio development
- IP and commercial litigation
- IPOs and private equity
- Joint ventures and development agreements
- Mergers and acquisitions
- Payment systems
- Privacy and cybersecurity
- Public company and corporate governance
- Regulatory issues
- Sweepstakes, contests and promotions
We are a leading provider of start-up and venture capital services
Fenwick is consistently ranked by Chambers USA as a Tier 1 startup and emerging company practice nationwide and as one of the Top 5 most active VC law firms globally by PitchBook. We currently represent hundreds of venture-backed or private equity-backed companies, including a large number of emerging digital game clients, including Unity Technologies, Niantic, Baobab Studios, Dream11, Robot Entertainment, Plain Vanilla Games and Two Bit Circus. In recent years, we have handled well over 100 venture financing transactions for our game clients, with a cumulative value in excess of $2.4 billion.
We have an extensive track record of negotiating mission critical commercial agreements
Our more than 25 licensing and technology transactions attorneys – devoted full-time to analyzing transactions – have deep experience in structuring and negotiating mission critical commercial agreements for games companies, including development, distribution, publishing, celebrity, e-commerce, IT sourcing and strategic transactions. We have counseled, drafted or negotiated development, distribution and publishing deals for our games clients such as Electronic Arts, Glu Mobile, VeriSign, Amazon and IGN.
Our Payment Systems practice keeps clients on the right side of ever-evolving regulations
Games companies are creating some of today’s most exciting and disruptive business models, often forcing our highly regulated global financial system to catch up. Our Payment Systems practice helps clients navigate this highly regulated and evolving landscape by providing practical, actionable advice on the legal, business and regulatory issues around online and mobile payments, micro- and peer-to-peer transactions, virtual and digital currency, Blockchain technology and loyalty and rewards programs. We regularly design and implement clients’ payment systems to maximize revenue and regulatory compliance. When clients face regulatory issues, we have the experience required to handle matters before the FDIC, OCC, CFPB, FTC, FRB, FinCEN, OFAC and all state financial regulatory agencies.
We have an elite global M&A practice
We are highly ranked by Bloomberg and Chambers for M&A nationally and by Legal 500 as a Top 3 corporate and M&A law firm in the U.S. for the interactive entertainment sector. Case in point, we handled the three largest acquisitions in the history of the mobile games industry, with a total value of nearly $19 billion (King acquisition by Activision Blizzard; Supercell Oy acquisition by Tencent; Shanghai Giant’s acquisition of Playtika). In recent years, we have completed more than 150 transactions in the industry with a combined value in excess of $45 billion for clients such as Razer, Nexon, Electronic Arts, Glu Mobile, King Digital, Twitter, Facebook and Unity Technologies.
Our Intellectual Property practice helps shape the future of the industry
Our IP attorneys partner with clients to help them develop and protect tomorrow’s innovations and new business models. While our work often remains top secret, the results we generate for our clients earn our IP practice perennial top-rankings by Chambers, The National Law Journal, IAM Patent 1000, Managing Intellectual Property among others. We are extremely proud to have helped develop and manage some of the world’s most valuable patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret assets in the games industry for innovators such as Amazon.com, Caesars Entertainment, Niantic Labs, Razer, Megvii, Phoenix Labs and Twitter.
We have a go-to Litigation practice
Our 100+ attorney Litigation Department has represented games companies since the industry’s earliest days. Our litigators’ intimate familiarity with the industry’s myriad technologies, business models and unique issues enable us to provide actionable, practical advice during product development phases that help avoid claims down the road. But when litigation is inevitable, we have the bench and depth of experience to efficiently handle any type of litigation or regulatory issue a games or digital media client might face. For example, our litigators have won some of the industry’s most important cloning cases as well as key trademark and copyright cases that have helped shaped laws governing the internet and digital media. We also have one of the most active patent litigation practices in the U.S., regularly litigating against patent trolls and handling high-stakes competitor disputes. Our litigation clients include Supercell Oy, Nexon, Razer, Amazon.com, Capcom, Sega, Glu Mobile, Gram Games, King, Peak Games and SGN Games.
We are a one-stop shop for Privacy & Cybersecurity services
Games companies invariably collect and store an extraordinary amount of highly sensitive information about their customers and employees, which keeps the companies perpetually in the crosshairs of regulators, consumer advocacy entities and external and internal bad actors. Our Privacy & Cybersecurity practice provides a comprehensive array of counseling, regulatory and litigation services to ensure our games clients stay out of the crosshairs so they can focus on their business. The practice group brings together an integrated team of attorneys and certified privacy professionals from our Intellectual Property, Litigation and Electronic Information Management practices. This broadly experienced team allows us to provide services that range from privacy compliance program development and data use policies to handling data breach incidents and privacy consumer class action litigation.
