Fruit Ninja or Veggie Samurai?

A friend asked me to download a game for my ipod touch. Because he forgot the name, he described it to me instead. The objective of the game was to slice the flying objects before they hit the ground, at the same time avoiding slicing the exploding items. So I asked around and was told that the game is called Veggie Samurai. I downloaded that. When my friend saw it, it turns out that he was referring to Fruit Ninja. The objective of the game is the same, but instead of slicing vegetables, you slice fruits in the latter. Instead of avoiding flying vials of poison, you avoid flying bombs in Fruit Ninja. I got curious enough to do background check on each app. While Veggie Samurai was made by Quantum Squid Interactive and Fruit Ninja was developed by Halfbrick Studios, both apps cost 99 US Cents.

This got me thinking. Can Halfbrick Studios sue Quantum Squid Interactive for copyright infringement? I’m sure I am not the first who ended up downloading Veggie Samurai when what I was really looking for was Fruit Ninja. I’m sure Halfbrick Studios loses a significant amount in profits because of such confusion. So I checked my Intellectual Property Law notes and found the answer – NO. Concepts are not copyrightable. In fact, in the case of Joaquin v. Drilon, the Supreme Court held that the format of a game show is not copyrightable. The copyright extends to the copies of the video of the show instead. The same principle applies here. It is the graphics, the sounds, etc of Fruit Ninja that is entitled to copyright, and not the concept. This is an important thing to keep in mind next time an application developer is looking to make a little extra profit...

Katrina Sy, 16th Blog Entry