Discussion on when dark patterns in video games considered as unethical approach against players may also be treated unlawful from the regulatory perspective, and what are possible consequences for developers who decided to implement dark patterns in their games. 

Year 2023 marked the first video games trade union emerging in Poland. During this presentation we will discuss legal aspects of trade unions in Poland, what are their rights and responsibilities, as well as what experience can be derived from other market sectors with longer traditions of trade unions.   

Professional insurances are not a very vibrant topic in a video game market, but that does not make them less important. IP infringement? Breach of Representation & Warranty under SPA/SHA? Data breach incident? Flood at the office right before the milestone deadline? All of these and more will be given an overview during this presentation.    

Disputes in video games market are usually heated with emotions and complicated legalese. But when developers and publishers face disputes which span across several countries, each with different laws and approaches to handling dispute, the complexity reaches another level. During this panel we will discuss how to handle multijurisdictional claims and whether is it always necessary to go to court to solve a dispute. 

The original intention of most countries was to exclude mechanics from copyright protection, and for good reasons. During this debate, we will discuss whether is it time to think about allowing copyright protection of original and nonobvious mechanics invented in video games, as well as whether there are other ways to claim protection over mechanics. 

Movies and TV series based on video games are present for decades, with a recent example of Fallout being a prime example of brining a video game to a small screen. Increase of quantity and quality of video games adaptations (usually) does not correspond with changes in approach to agreements proposed by studios to developers. In this panel we discuss why is so difficult to negotiate a fair deal between movie studios and video game developers, and what can be done to improve that.

AI is making its entry into video games market with full force, whether one likes it or not. Legislations are being drafted, first legal acts enter into force in the near future. In this panel we will talk on how to navigate the use of AI among different regulations, what to take into account from non-regulatory perspective (e.g. intellectual property rights), as well as discuss AI governance whether it should become a part of any video game company.

Licensing usually resembles either getting a license to make or publish a video game, or end-user license to a ready product. But in fact, during the course of making a video game, there are so many more licenses being used, i.e. engines, tools, assets, makers, and other software. Managing those license can become real hard. In this panel we will talk about the best practices regarding managing many licenses in a video game studio, what are differences between enterprise and user licenses, as well as whether used software can be safely utilized by video game companies in order to lower costs.

The number of newly enacted regulations being applicable to video games sector grows immensely each year. During this panel, we will talk about the recent important changes in regulatory and compliance laws enacted or upcoming in European Union, Japan, USA, UK, and Poland.

Recession in video games market is a statement of fact but that does not mean that transactions have stopped. They have not but the approach, both from business and legal perspective shifted towards uncommon solutions. During this panel we will talk on changes that we observed over the last 1-2 years in terms of structuring M&A and VS deals in relation to business proposal as well as legal solutions implemented in transactional documents.

Being products addressed to everyone, making video games is as much about licensing, publishing and compliance, as about meeting various cultural differences. In this panel we will discuss some of the real-life challenges faced during creation of video games, and how to approach solving them in a way that no one is insulted nor any legal implications become a problem.