Lawfirm Fenwick & West announced today that they won a motion to dismiss all copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property claims asserted by MKR Group, the rightsholders to George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, against Capcom, maker of Dead Rising. MKR originally threatened Capcom with a lawsuit while Dead Rising was still under development, claiming that Dead Rising’s zombies-in-a-mall premise was dangerously similar to that of Dawn of the Dead.

Capcom and MKR originally entered settlement negotiations, but after nearly a year of talks, Capcom sought outside legal help. After a second threat of suit by MKR, Capcom, along with Microsoft and Best Buy, filed a complaint for declaratory relief in the Northern District of California in February of this year. According to Law Fuel, Capcom sought a declaration that:

Dead Rising does not infringe any copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property rights belonging to MKR because any similarities between Dead Rising and Dawn of the Dead are based on the wholly unprotectable idea of humans battling zombies in a shopping mall, and that its distribution, marketing and promotion of Dead Rising is not likely to confuse consumers as to the source or origin of the game or to dilute any alleged distinctiveness of any trademarks held by MKR, particularly in light of [an in-game] disclaimer.

In response, MKR filed a third party complaint and counterclaim against Capcom, which asserted copyright infringement, violation of the Lanham Act, unfair competition, misappropriation, and dilution. Unfortunately for MKR, the court granted a motion to dismiss all of MKR’s claims with prejudice on Monday, October 20.

LOP: It’s good to see Capcom come away the victor in this one. Even our guest writer, with no legal training, thought MKR’s claim was a bit dubious.

[via Law Fuel]

I just finished Dead Rising tonight. Actually, I finished the story about two weeks ago, but I got the final achievement tonight. After I wrapped the playthrough and finally took one of the best zombie games I’ve ever played out of my 360, I checked up on what Kotaku had posted today and found this little gem: Dead Rising could soon be in hot water over the game’s similarity to George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, essential viewing for any zombie fan. It seems the copyright holders are finally deciding that they don’t like that Capcom copied their “zombies in a mall premise” and are likely getting ready to file a lawsuit.

I can not overstate how retarded any potential lawsuit would be. It’s not like Capcom was ever claiming this game was related to Romero’s classic, and the game even bears a disclaimer stating it’s not related to it in any form. Capcom never actively marketed it as a worthy successor to the movie, so claiming that it’s a knockoff made just for a quick buck would be irresponsible.

That means the only thing that the MKR Group can stand on is that both the game and the movie have the same premise of zombies in a mall, with survivors hanging out in the security room. Sure, it’s undeniable that the setting is exactly the same. But as anyone who has played the game will agree, the tone of the game is completely different than the movie. In Dawn of the Dead, the few survivors act with extreme caution in anything they do and try to avoid conflict as much as possible. Dead Rising, in contrast, allows the player to take great pleasure in killing as many zombies as they can with whatever weapons they can find, running about with reckless abandon as you take no permanent penalty for having a zombie chew on your shoulder. Futhermore, while Dawn of the Dead is a social commentary on consumerism in America, Dead Rising’s plot is more concerned with an international view of America as an resource-consuming entity, mixed with ridicule for common American stereotypes. (The game’s psychopaths, or bosses, include a goth pyromaniac, a corrupt cop, a shell-shocked Vietnam veteran, a redneck, and a trio of snipers who brag about their rights granted by the Second Amendment.)

Needless to say, the MKR Group doesn’t have a leg to stand on. There’s no way to copyright a premise or setting. If there were, then we’d (thankfully) have a lot fewer WWII games and movies.

About the Author: Necros is a community blogger at Destructoid.com and the maintainer of the unofficial Destructoid IRCartel.  He is also a regular on the bi-weekly community-oriented videogame podcast “Failcast.”