Mobile Gaming: Playing Means Paying
More and more Europeans turn to their mobile phone to play a game or, if their national laws allow them to, place a bet. Since last September, even guests of certain Nevada hotels can place bets on their mobile devices –which is surprising to say the least, as online gambling is still strictly forbidden in the United States.
Undoubtedly the rise in mobile gaming is being propelled by the popularity of smartphones. The entertainment value of mobile games has increased significantly as the games have evolved from simple, pre-installed time-wasters to challenging and visually attractive amusements. Gambling operators as well as mobile phone companies are currently making huge efforts to be at the forefront of what is predicted to be the next commercial battle. Many are investing in mobile apps, innovative software and smartphone technology to make sure they will be part of this growing market.
The legal battles between online giants is moving beyond Apple vs Samsung.
The increasing use of mobile games does, however, mean operators and phone companies will be subject to more scrutiny by regulators and other relevant parties and there will almost certainly follow a rapid increase in lawsuits against businesses in the mobile gaming sector; legal cases affecting both developers and platforms. Until a year ago, patent infringement cases were mostly limited to legal battles between only the biggest in the industry, such as the on-going battle between Samsung and Apple. This is, however, no longer a realistic assessment of the current legal situation in the market.
A growing number of companies are considering legal action against game and app developers, who are becoming more and more aware that intellectual property rights need to be taken into account when developing a gaming app. Copyrights, patents and trademarks are increasingly becoming a headache for developers and businesses, alongside the data protection issues that have arisen. Moreover, there are still many advertising and marketing rules and guidelines which developers and businesses must stick to.
All this means a rapidly growing client base for many law firms, especially for those practices that offer advice on data protection, gambling and gaming, and TMT. These clients include some of the biggest players in the market; mobile phone companies, banks, investors, gaming businesses and payments processors who see the opportunities and have recognised the commercial outlook. The market seems to be on a high and as one industry lawyer pointed out to me recently: ‘the more people play, the more our clients pay.’
Author: Michiel Willems
Dutchman Michiel Willems LLM MA is based in central London as an international journalist in broadcast and print, specialised in UK current affairs, e-commerce, finance, business and legal news.
Michiel studied law and journalism in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom and after gaining experience in Malaysia and India he returned to London in 2008 to embark on a career in writing and reporting.
With global study and work experience and an open mind, he currently works in central London as an associate editor, writer, voice over professional and radio reporter. Michiel has developed a great interest in the facts behind the headlines, the stories behind the statistics and the people behind the news.
His specialties are writing news stories, features, editorial comments, catchy standfirsts, drop quotes, captions, headers and headlines, commissioning, editing, conducting interviews, managing publications’ flatplans, radio reporting and gathering large amounts of information within a relatively small amount of time.
Michiel usually approaches a story from an original, relevant angle and likes to come up with fresh ideas for news stories and in-depth features. He speaks to a wide number of sources across the political, financial, business, legal and e-commerce sectors on a daily basis. Michiel has a broad network of contacts, in the UK as well as overseas, mainly consisting of bankers, lawyers, lobbyists, consultants, entrepreneurs, payment processors, regulators, trade associations, policymakers and politicians.
