Maker Humvee vehicles Sues Activision for Call of Duty games

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 11/09/2017 09:54 AM | source: | 25 comment(s)

In a complaint filed on Tuesday night in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, AM General LLC accused Activision of taking advantage of its goodwill and reputation in the “Humvee” and “HMMWV” marks by featuring them prominently in “Call of Duty,” and licensing related content for use in toys and books, reports Reuters:

“Humvee” and “HMMWV” are short for High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles. AM General said it has made more than 278,000 Humvees.

Mary Osako, a spokeswoman for Activision, said on Wednesday that the company does not discuss pending litigation. Activision has said “Call of Duty” last year was the world’s largest video game console franchise, and North America’s largest for the eighth straight year.The franchise was launched in 2003, and sales had by 2016 topped 250 million units, with revenue exceeding $15 billion, according to the Santa Monica, California-based company.

But AM General said that success came “only at the expense of AM General and consumers who are deceived into believing that AM General licenses the games or is somehow connected with or involved in the creation of the games.”

AM General is owned by MacAndrews & Forbes Inc and Renco Group Inc, which are holding companies for the billionaires Ronald Perelman and Ira Rennert, respectively. The South Bend, Indiana-based company said it wants compensatory, punitive and triple damages from Activision, after more than a year of communication failed to end the dispute. Humvee-branded vehicles have been used for more than three decades by the U.S. military and in more than 50 countries, AM General said. In recent months, they have been used in armed conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, and to provide relief to victims of Hurricane Harvey in Texas. AM General has also produced a civilian vehicle, the Hummer.

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mbk1969
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#5491019 Posted on: 11/10/2017 11:47 AM

Very easy from dilettante point of view : pay that company and/or remove emblems from all vehicles in game.

Do we ever give a f@ck to emblems on vehicle models in FPS game?

whackjob73
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#5491068 Posted on: 11/10/2017 04:08 PM

All that free advertising for AM general and they still sue. And how many consumers do you think were "deceived" into believeing that AM Gen had anything to do with the creation of COD? What a crock. I say remove all Humvees from future installments of COD. I'm pretty sure some other manufacturer would love the free exposure COD would give them.

airbud7
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#5491078 Posted on: 11/10/2017 04:23 PM

That's what I'm thinking to^....never bite the hand that helps feed you.

TheDeeGee
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#5491178 Posted on: 11/10/2017 08:29 PM

What about the other 9485039485 War Games using Humvees?

BarryB
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#5491217 Posted on: 11/10/2017 10:20 PM

So how many Humvees did the COD franchise actually help sell then?

CalculuS
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#5491221 Posted on: 11/10/2017 10:23 PM

I think the payment they get in sueing is more than they make from advertising. Don't imagine little kids are the main audience for military vehicles.

0blivious
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#5491368 Posted on: 11/11/2017 04:50 PM

I don't understand you people talking about free advertising. No one is buying an HMMWV because of a video game. It's a military spec vehicle, not a Corolla.

Kaarme
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#5491374 Posted on: 11/11/2017 05:30 PM

Hmm... I had commented on this article, but I guess somebody sued Guru3D, forcing them to remove my comment.

In any case I said I reckon Arma 3 chose to switch to a fictional near future setting in order to avoid these kinds of troubles. So, they have weapons and vehicles that are novel or might somewhat resemble real ones, but they are legally safe nonetheless. Modders of course could and did add whatever they wanted into the game.

tsunami231
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#5491384 Posted on: 11/11/2017 06:20 PM

The maker of Humvee military vehicles filed a lawsuit accusing Activision Blizzard Inc of reaping billions of dollars of revenue by incorporating its trademarks without permission in its flagship “Call of Duty” video game franchise.

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/maker-humvee-vehicles-sues-activision-for-call-of-duty-games.html

I not sure if I should laugh or cry, actual if started to laugh i probably wind up crying. Can I sue the world for turning the world in to cesspool of idiots? that money would get me out the stupid BS I cant get away of due to no money or means to get away from it.

airbud7
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#5491420 Posted on: 11/11/2017 08:25 PM

if the loser was forced to pay all court cost/attorney fees this crap would Stop.

There is presently little downside to someone who files a lawsuit...

sykozis
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#5491468 Posted on: 11/12/2017 12:55 AM

It's all about the money..... They're hoping to sustain themselves off the proceeds from this lawsuit after the US military declined to renew their contract with AM General....

if the loser was forced to pay all court cost/attorney fees this crap would Stop.

There is presently little downside to someone who files a lawsuit...
Actually, if Activision/Blizzard wins, AM General can be forced to incur any and all legal costs associated with the lawsuit. It's the "frivolous lawsuit" clause....

airbud7
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#5491485 Posted on: 11/12/2017 01:36 AM

Actually, if Activision/Blizzard wins, AM General can be forced to incur any and all legal costs associated with the lawsuit. It's the "frivolous lawsuit" clause....

would they do that though?...most likely not with big money.

sykozis
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#5491488 Posted on: 11/12/2017 01:47 AM

would they do that though?...most likely not with big money.

It's not always left to the Defendant to make that determination. There are cases where Judges have ordered Plaintiffs to pay legal expenses without a request or counter-suit from the Defendant. Just depends on the Judge and what the Plaintiff deems as "evidence". Usually that's left out of the published final ruling. I wouldn't expect it in this case though. When large corporations are involved, it's usually quite difficult to prove a suit to be "frivolous" since the proof requirements are much higher, usually requiring proof that all claims are factually incorrect to the point of being nearly entirely fabricated. (such as the lawsuit against Microsoft by Apple concerning the GUI, which Xerox actually held a valid Patent on that Apple openly admitted to violating.)

airbud7
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#5491504 Posted on: 11/12/2017 02:22 AM

Settlements are reached on the majority of cases because every case, no matter how irrational or illogical, has a settlement value equal to the cost of successfully defending the claim. Moreover, every defendant knows that even the most illogical lawsuit has a chance of succeeding in front of 12 jurors who know nothing of the issues in the case and may not be able to comprehend them.

dan83
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#5491506 Posted on: 11/12/2017 02:30 AM

Activision doesn’t have anything to worry about because logo infringement is federal but statue of limitations to file is determined by the state after discovery. Call of duty is an old game and very popular advertised everyone seen and Humvee manufacture are fully aware of there logos used in call of duty games for years and I’m sure statue of limitations state timeframe has long been passed. Humvee manufactures are wasting there time and money to file logo infidgement 5+ years later and judge throw out case due to statue of limitations.

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