Copy of Marvel v. NCSoft Ruling

CE Petit has posted a copy of the court’s March 9 opinion in Marvel Enterprises v. NCSoft Corporation (CV 04-9253-RGK). The opinion is rather unremarkable—mostly it deals with motions to dismiss, so the standard for upholding the pleadings is pretty generous. The court does dismiss the contributory and vicarious trademark infringement claims on the basis that Marvel did not allege that the game users were using the character names in connection with goods and services in interstate commerce. I’m surprised Marvel couldn’t find some facts to support this pleading. Given the extensive trading of virtual world characters and items on eBay and elsewhere, I would think Marvel could find something.