[City of Heroes] For those who had not heard, Marvel sued Cryptic because you can make superheroes that look like copyrighted heroes (although Cryptic resets those characters to “GenericHero####). While this would also suggest that they sue Microsoft, since you can do the same thing in Paint, and Bic, fine maker of pens, I understand why companies are worried about dilution of intellectual property. Copyright precedent holds that if you do not defend your right to exclusive ownership, you may de facto give it up. This is why Tivo does not want to be a generic word for DVRs, Xerox for photocopiers, or Kleenex for facial tissue.
I presume that there is more to this than is stated, but it sounds like Cryptic won unconditionally. Whatever it is that Marvel got out of this, it apparently does not require Cryptic to change anything in character creation. Maybe Cryptic just needs to say, “and we mean it!” when reseting the 4,057th Storm-Electricty defender named “Ororo.”
So a win for Cryptic and sanity. I presume that Marvel also has a press release announcing that they got everything they wanted out of this suit, it is a great win for shareholders, and by the way we have our own MMORPG coming out soon.
: Zubon