Semenov&Pevzner Law Firm has prepared a global report on legal conflicts in the gaming industry over the past six months.
The review was prepared by Ekaterina Smirnova, Managing Partner of the St. Petersburg office of Semenov&Pevzner, Marina Prygunova, Associate Lawyer of Semenov&Pevzner, and Vadim Kocheshev, Associate Lawyer of Semenov&Pevzner.
Ekaterina Smirnova, Marina Prygunova and Vadim Kocheshev
The work is divided into five parts:
- copyright;
- means of individualization;
- patent rights;
- cheats;
- other cases.
The previous review (January — June 2022) can be found here.
Copyright
1. The court rejected choreographer Kyle Hanagami’s lawsuit against Epic Games
On March 29, 2022, American choreographer and YouTuber Kyle Hanagami filed a lawsuit against Epic Games in the U.S. District Court of California. According to the choreographer, Epic Games illegally used his choreography as one of the variants of the visualized emotions of the Captain America character (it’s about the emotion “It’s Complicated”, which was presented by the developers in August 2020) in Fortnite.
In 2017, the choreographer choreographed a dance to Charlie Puth‘s song “How Long” and posted a video with it on YouTube, which has gained more than 35 million views. Hanagami does indeed own copyrights, and registered in accordance with the US Copyright Act, both for the choreography and for the dance video itself.
In a decision dated August 24, 2022, the District Court of California did not agree with the choreographer’s arguments: the court did not see a high degree of similarity between the Hanagami dance and the dance for the emotion “It’s Complicated” in Fortnite. The judge also noted that the individual dance movements or “steps”, which the choreographer claimed in the lawsuit, are not protected by copyright, since they are classical and are widely used in dances by various authors. The Court pointed out that such simple dance movements can only be copyrighted in combination with other elements.
In November 2021, Brooks Entertainment filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of California against Activision Blizzard and Rockstar Games. As follows from the lawsuit, the defendants allegedly used the image of Brooks Entertainment CEO Sean Brooks to create the character Sean Brooks in the game Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare.
Sean Brusk from Brooks Entertainment and Sean Brusk from Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
In addition, the plaintiff believes that in the same Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare game, the defendants copied certain elements from the plaintiff’s own developments (we are talking about Stock Picker and Save One Bank games): the games have similar battle scenes in shopping malls, and the main characters of the games go to Mars.
On July 12, 2022, the U.S. District Court of California dismissed the lawsuit. The court pointed out that the plaintiff’s lawyer had studied the case materials too superficially and came to erroneous conclusions. Firstly, Rockstar Games has nothing to do with the Call of Duty series of games, which is published only by Activision Blizzard. Secondly, the character Sean Brooks is not the main character of the game and, moreover, does not look at all like the CEO of Brooks Entertainment, Sean Brooks. And although the game Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare does have a battle in the mall, it does not look like the description in the lawsuit.
The judge added that the plaintiff’s lawyer “could easily verify these facts before filing a factually unfounded complaint, just as the court easily verified them during the first hour and a half of the game.”
Created in 2015 by Chinese developers, the game Pocket Monster Reissue, also known as Koudaiyaoguai Fuke, has gained great popularity among Chinese players. The game uses exact copies of the characters of Ash and other Pokemon — Pikachu, Oshavot and Tepiga. Chinese developers do not hide their involvement in the Pokemon universe and even named one of the special editions of the game – “Pikachu”. In the first year alone, the game’s sales totaled $43.4 million.
Pocket Monster Reissue
The popularity of the Chinese game Pocket Monster Reissue only increased in 2017, when the Chinese authorities banned the official game Pokémon Go, developed with the support of Nintendo and The Pokémon Company.
Seven years later, at the end of August 2022, the Japanese company The Pokémon Company finally found out about the existence of the Pocket Monster Reissue game and filed a lawsuit against six Chinese development companies, one of which is Shenzhen-listed Jiangyin Zhongnan Heavy Industries Co. In the lawsuit, the copyright holder of “Pokemon” pointed to copyright infringement and unfair competition, and also demanded damages in the amount of $72.5 million. In addition, the plaintiff demanded a public apology from the Chinese companies.
At the moment, the lawsuit is pending.
4. Bungie Studio sued a YouTube blogger for sending fake “strikes”
On June 22, 2022, Bungie Studio filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington against a Destiny 2 player who filed dozens of fake copyright infringement warnings on behalf of the company. The lawsuit states that the creator of the California YouTube channel Nick Minor (Nick Minor) replicated one removal notice in 96 fraudulent “strikes” against other YouTube users.
The developer pointed out that in December 2021, Bungie’s “brand protection” contractor, CSC Global, sent Minor a legal copyright notice asking him to remove music from the Destiny The Taken King soundtrack from a YouTube video. Presumably, in response, Minor created a Gmail account imitating the CSC Global account, and then sent similar requests to many other YouTube accounts: Minor introduced himself as a representative of CSC Global and demanded that the accounts remove the controversial audio works from the content by sending “strikes”.
Bungie characterizes the actions of the YouTuber as a “disinformation campaign” against the studio. The Destiny 2 community was confused by the notifications they received and upset, believing that Bungie had broken a promise to allow players to create their own communities and YouTube channels on Destiny 2 content.
The company demanded financial damages for defamation, filing false DMCA (Digital Age Copyright Act) notices and copyright infringement.
Bungie suggests that the intruder exploited weaknesses in the YouTube reporting system: Minor could easily impersonate an employee of CSC Global, for example, because YouTube requires that all reports come through a Gmail account, and not through the company’s domain.
The further fate of the claim is still unknown.
In 2017, James Hayden filed a lawsuit against 2K Games and Take-Two Interactive. According to the plaintiff, images of tattoos that Jayce Hayden specially designed for basketball players Danny Green, LeBron James and Tristan Thompson were illegally used in the NBA 2K series of games.
LeBron James in NBA 2K
The defendants, objecting to the lawsuit, pointed out that the tattoos were used in the game only to realistically convey the images of famous basketball players, and the proportion of their getting into the frame is insignificant. In addition, the publishers of the game believe that the tattoos are “not original” and therefore are not protected by copyright.
In a ruling dated September 20, 2022, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio found that the plaintiff’s tattoos are protected by copyright, since the process of creating a tattoo requires “countless artistic decisions, including with regard to the exact shape, style, expression, shade, line thickness, density, color and orientation on the shoulder […]. Applying a high-quality tattoo on the body requires considerable perception, vision, dexterity and skills, given the uneven surface of the human body.”
Other questions about whether the tattoo images were used in the game to a small extent and whether this infringed on the value of the plaintiff’s tattoos were referred to the jury.
The final decision on the case has not been made, the claim is under consideration.
6. The court granted the claim of tattoo artist Catherine Alexander to Take-Two Interactive
Lawsuits about the illegal use of tattoos in games have become a trend. In 2018, tattoo artist Catherine Alexander filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois against Take-Two Interactive. She claimed that the company infringed the copyright on the tattoos and illegally used the images to create the character of wrestler Randy Orton in the WWE 2K series of games.
Randy Orton in WWE 2K
On September 30, 2022, the court ruled in favor of the tattoo artist and ordered Take-Two Interactive to pay her compensation in the amount of $3,750 dollars (although Alexander initially asked for more). At the same time, the judge rejected all the arguments of the developer that the tattoos were used in the game to a small extent and solely to create a realistic image of the famous wrestler Randy Orton.
The judge also noted that the company’s actions required obtaining a license from the tattoo artist to use tattoos. We believe that this court decision may become a dangerous precedent that will allow tattoo artists to recover numerous monetary compensation for any images of their clients’ tattoos that have ever been seen in photographs, movies or games.
7. Musician Simon Rosenfield publicly complained to Riot Games for blocking his song
Composer and performer Simon Rosenfeld wrote on Twitter that he collaborated with Riot Games at the end of 2020. According to him, the company acquired the rights to the Heroes song from him in order to use it as an anthem for the League of Legends World Championship in 2021.
However, neither in 2021 nor in 2022 the song was used — instead, players heard the song Burn It All Down from PVRIS and the track Star Walkin’ from rapper Lil Nas X.
The musician decided to post the song on YouTube and SoundCloud so that it would not be wasted, but the song was immediately blocked for copyright infringement by Riot Games.
Representatives of the company, in turn, stated that they had never collaborated with Simon Rosenfield.
Rosenfield does not stop there and stubbornly continues to publish his song online, using new accounts on platforms.
Means of individualization
1. IKEA has sent a claim of trademark infringement to the developer of the horror game
In October 2022, it became known that the Swedish company IKEA sent a complaint to the developer of The Store is Closed, a horror game whose meaning boils down to survival in an “endless furniture store.” IKEA believes that the company’s trademarks are illegally used in the game: “blue and yellow designations with words in Swedish”, “blue square building”, “yellow striped shirts like IKEA employees”, “pieces of furniture similar to IKEA furniture”. Together, a persistent association of the game with the furniture store of the same name is created.
Since the game has not been released yet and is currently at the stage of raising money on a crowdfunding platform, IKEA demanded that the developer eliminate violations within ten days and remove all details that in any way refer to the furniture store network.
Game developer Jacob Shaw mentioned that it is very difficult to make such global changes to a game that is in the final stage of development in just ten days. Nevertheless, he agreed to comply with all the requirements of the company in order to avoid costly litigation.
Patent rights
1. A patent was illegally used in the Pokémon Go mobile game
A few years ago, the developer Niantic added a feature to the Pokémon Go mobile game, thanks to which players can exchange a special QR code with each other and play in multiplayer.
In May 2022, K.Mirza, a company licensed for a number of technological patents, filed a lawsuit in the Munich District Court against the authors of Pokémon Go. According to the plaintiff, the developers of the mobile game illegally used a patent for a technology that allows identifying nearby mobile devices using QR codes.
Even at the preliminary hearing stage, the judge strongly recommended that Niantic conclude a license agreement with the plaintiff, obtain the legal right to use the patent and disperse from the world. However, the developer was strongly opposed to negotiations with the plaintiff and tried to prove in court that the disputed patent was not used in the game.
On August 18, 2022, the Munich District Court ruled in favor of K.Mizra and found patent infringement. Now the plaintiff will be able not only to recover compensation from the developer of the mobile game, but also to prohibit the use of the patent, which could potentially lead to a change in the functionality of the game.
Cheats
1. The dispute between AimJunkies and Bungie continues
In 2021, Bungie filed a lawsuit against AimJunkies, the creators of cheats for games. It follows from the lawsuit that AimJunkies violate Bungie’s copyrights by using the original game code to create cheats. Bungie also pointed out that “cheaters spoil the user experience of playing Destiny 2. Cheaters not only worsen the gaming experience of users who do not use cheats, but also illegally receive and thereby devalue in-game rewards.”
The defendants do not deny the creation of cheats, but point out that current US law does not prohibit their creation and sale.
In April 2022, the court found that the plaintiff’s code was not used in the development of cheats, and rejected most of the claims. However, the trial continued, and now Bungie has shifted the focus of the lawsuit to the damage caused to it due to the creation and sale of cheats by the defendants.
However, the creators of the cheats hold the opposite opinion on this matter: “Bungie also claims that we caused damage to it, when in fact the busiest months in terms of player activity and sales were when we sold our software. We intend to collect evidence of this.” The defendants even offered the plaintiff to legally implement cheats in Destiny 2. In their opinion, this will only improve the gameplay.
In September 2022, it became known that AimJunkies filed a counterclaim against Bungie in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. They accused Bungie of illegally gaining access to Destiny 2 users’ computers and viewing files for cheats, as well as illegally reverse-engineering AimJunkies cheats to study the principle of their operation. According to the authors of the cheats, the company violated the user agreement of the game and the DMCA (copyright law in the digital age).
2. Activision continues to fight against EngineOwning
Before the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (October 28, 2022), Activision participated with great zeal in a lawsuit against a major manufacturer of cheats for the game Call of Duty — Engineering.
In the last review, we wrote that Activision filed a lawsuit against EngineOwning in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on January 4, 2022. Then the company stated that the sale of cheats not only brought it material losses, but also caused reputational losses.
Activision pointed out in the lawsuit that EngineOwning uses the popularity of the shooter for its personal gain and profit by implementing cheats, hacks and other malicious software, which, in turn, negatively affects the gaming experience of Call of Duty users.
The matter did not end there. In recent documents, Activision has also filed claims against those who implement cheats, including users of Bonsai, Homie, NOL3X. The company also took action against a number of fictitious companies and individuals associated with EngineOwning and its business of selling cheats in various jurisdictions.
Activision has demanded that the current software for the operation of cheats and any upcoming software that allows players to use cheats be completely withdrawn from circulation. Moreover, the company asked that all the revenue that EngineOwning earned from the sale of cheats be transferred to Activison.
The trial has not yet reached the final.
On July 6, 2022, the verdict in Russia’s first criminal case on cybercrime in the gaming industry became known.
The Verkh-Isetsky District Court of Yekaterinburg sentenced Andrey Kirsanov to two and a half years of restriction of freedom — he was forbidden to travel outside Yekaterinburg and change his place of residence without the consent of the state body exercising supervision. In addition, Kirsanov is obliged to report to the police once a month for registration.
Criminal case No. 1-382/2022 was initiated in the spring of 2021, when Kirsanov was accused of creating a website selling cheats for World of Tanks and World of Warships games under part two of Article 273 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Creation and distribution of malicious computer programs”). The affected party is the Wargaming company: cheats give players an unfair advantage over opponents, which is why honest gamers lose motivation to play on.
The investigation found that since 2014, the Russian has sold thousands of software packages with bots and cheats, the cost of each package ranged from 25 to 2000 rubles. The damage caused to the Wargaming company is estimated by the investigation at 670 million rubles.
At the hearing, Kirsanov admitted his guilt and later stated that he agreed with the verdict and was not going to appeal it.
It is expected that other developers can use this method of dealing with cheats later.
Other
1. The regional version of PUBG Mobile was blocked in India
On July 29, 2022, the government of India banned one of the popular battle royale games — Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) from Krafton. It did so in accordance with section 69A of the Information Technology Act of 2000. This is not the first time in 2022 that the Indian government has banned a major mobile game: in February, Free Fire, developed by Garena, was blocked.
The ban was unexpected because there was no official statement from both Krafton and the government of India: BGMI was simply removed from the App Store and Google Play.
Recall that the government of India in 2020 imposed a ban on over 300 mobile applications, the developers of most of which were in China: applications were banned for reasons of national security regarding personal data. The blocking affected PUBG Mobile, the developer of which is also Krafton. Moreover, at that time PUBG Mobile was the most popular mobile game in the country. The blocking of the game is motivated by the fact that the developer provided personal data to his Chinese partner Tencent. Subsequently, Krafton broke off relations with Tencent and relaunched the game under the name BGMI in 2021.
It is assumed that BGMI was also blocked due to the fact that the game forwarded Android user data to Krafton servers in China. At the moment, Krafton has changed the routing order for the transfer of personal data, but the game has remained banned in the country.
According to industry observers, the BGMI ban will have significant damage to the gaming and esports industry in India.
2. Nintendo Of America testers have been sexually harassed for years
On August 16, 2022, Kotaku released material describing the secret aspects of the corporate culture of the American division of Nintendo.
In particular, Kotaku spoke with former tester Hannah. In an interview with the portal, she complained that her hourly wage was $3 less than that of a junior tester, although Hannah held a higher career position. The girl also said that the management forbade spreading about the inappropriate behavior of one of the Nintendo employees in the workplace. In addition, she reported that she had been subjected to inappropriate comments from male colleagues regarding her sexual orientation.
Many Nintendo employees told Kotaku about a similar experience. They also complained about the lack of opportunities for promotion — women face a “glass ceiling”.
A day after the report was published, Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser he sent a letter to employees by corporate mail, in which he acknowledged the fact of media coverage of harassment and indicated that the company was ready to carry out an internal investigation.
Nintendo has not publicly commented on the allegations.
Activision Blizzard has filed a complaint with the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) due to the fact that the company imposes restrictions on the transmission of information about working conditions among employees, despite the mandatory prohibition in US law. The Communication Workers Union in the United States (CWA) said that Activision Blizzard restricted access to an internal chat where employees discussed wages and working conditions, including issues related to harassment and discrimination in the workplace.
According to the text of the complaint, the company’s managers threatened employees who discussed the details of the lawsuit on the claim of sexual harassment against Activision Blizzard. According to Jessica Gonzalez, a former senior Blizzard testing analyst, the company has a “pattern of revenge against employees who speak out,” which only intensifies as the company faces new lawsuits and complaints.
Moreover, in July 2022, the California Department of Civil Rights (CRD, formerly known as DFEH) filed a lawsuit against the company, claiming that the developer’s employees face “constant sexual harassment” from colleagues and managers, as well as discrimination in promotion.
4. A court in the United States will consider an appeal in the case of Epic Games and Apple
On October 21, 2022, a meeting of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit was to be held to consider the appeal of Epic Games against Apple in an antitrust case, the details of which are being discussed far from the first time. However, the court session was postponed, the new date is still unknown.
Epic Games is appealing the refusal of the court of first instance to satisfy the claims, and Apple is appealing the court’s decision obliging Apple to allow third-party developers to add links to third-party payment systems to applications.
Both sides believe that the decision of the court of first instance is erroneous in one part or another. In addition to the fact that the text of the decision contains hundreds of typos — even the position of Tim Cook is incorrect. The companies believe that the judge misinterpreted the US antitrust law, and her conclusions contradict the actual market situation. The judge also mistakenly claimed that Apple’s share in the smartphone market is less than Apple’s share in the smartphone operating system market, although iOS is not sold separately from the iPhone.
The only reason according to which the judge rejected Epic Games’ lawsuit is that Apple’s in—app payment system cannot, in her opinion, be separated from the App Store. In the appeal, Epic Games claims that Apple artificially restricts the possibility of introducing other payment systems, and also that Apple denies developers access to iOS if they do not use its payment system. According to the developer’s position, violation of antimonopoly legislation and the fact of unfair competition are obvious.
Recall that 35 US states supported Epic Games. If the states can agree and choose one representative, they will probably also be granted the right to participate in the trial.
The outcome of this case promises to be interesting.
5. Sony and antitrust authorities object to the deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard
The subject of active discussion was one of the largest deals in the world of gaming — Microsoft‘s purchase of Activision Blizzard.
Sony opposes this deal because it fears that Activision Blizzard products — primarily the Call of Duty game — will become exclusives of the Xbox ecosystem. The Japanese giant believes that giving Microsoft control over Activision Blizzard games will have serious negative consequences for gamers and the future of the gaming industry. According to Sony, the restriction of market competition from the point of view of platforms can also serve as a reason for refusing to release new games in the series on PlayStation, which, of course, will cause significant damage to Sony.
Microsoft, in response to Sony’s statements, announced that it does not plan to make Activison Blizzard products exclusives. The corporation believes that it makes no economic sense to remove Call of Duty from the PlayStation Store, given the console’s leading position in the market — the exclusivity of these games does not compensate for the losses from the withdrawal of games from the PlayStation. She noted that Sony itself practices creating exclusives for its consoles and ensures that studios and publishers do not release their games on Xbox.
As a concession, Microsoft offered Sony to conclude an agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for 10 years.
Microsoft’s deal to acquire Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion is also being thoroughly investigated by the regulatory authorities of the UK, the EU and a number of other countries. In particular, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) fears that Microsoft’s ownership of Activision Blizzard “will lead to a significant reduction in competition in the market or markets in the United Kingdom.”
On July 30, 2022, Indonesian Internet users faced the fact that hundreds of sites and services, including such giants as Steam, PayPal, Epic Games Store stopped working in the country.
The ban was related to a new regulatory regulation regarding electronic system providers: foreign companies must register in the register of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of Indonesia (Kominfo) in order to continue working in Indonesia. Most companies did not do this, which was the reason for the blocking.
A few days later it became known that Valve and Epic Games fulfilled the requirements of the authorities, after which Steam and Epic Games Store were unblocked. Nevertheless, at the moment, a total of 8721 sites and services continue to be blocked.
7. The Japanese court allowed to restrict the right to games
On August 20, 2022, the Takamatsu District Court in western Japan confirmed the constitutionality of a local ordinance that established restrictions on video games to combat gaming addiction. The decree, put into effect in Kagawa Prefecture in April 2020, sets out how long and when children are allowed to play games — this is the first such measure in Japan.
It was proposed to limit the time for video games for minors to 60 minutes a day on school days and 90 minutes on extracurricular days. The resolution also recommended limiting online games to 21:00 for junior high school students or to 22:00 for older children. The resolution was advisory in nature for parents and guardians — sanctions in case of non-compliance with the recommendations were not provided.
The 19-year-old plaintiff tried to appeal the ruling in September 2020. He demanded 1.6 million rubles from the prefectural government for violating the constitutional guarantees of respect for the individual and the pursuit of personal happiness.
The Court concluded that the ruling was based on reasonable considerations aimed at the public good. Since the resolution is advisory in nature for parents and guardians and does not include any penalties for non-compliance with it, it does not violate the rights of citizens, the judge said.
On August 22, 2022, a class action was filed against Sony in the UK Competition Appeals Tribunal (CAT). The company was accused of abusing its dominant position in the market in connection with imposing unfair conditions on developers and publishers of PlayStation games, which led to allegedly unfair and inflated prices for PlayStation Store users. In particular, the sellers noted that Sony charges a fixed fee of 30% from developers who sell games in the store. Because of this, the prices for digital versions of games are higher than the prices for physical copies of the same projects, despite the associated costs of manufacturing and delivery of tangible media.
According to the statement of claim, over the past six years, consumers have overpaid for their digital gaming purchases in the PlayStation Store by £5 billion (the estimated damage per person was estimated at £67- 562). According to istsov, Sony “ripped people off” by setting inflated prices for games and in-game purchases. They indicated that
The class action states that every resident of the UK who has purchased games or in-game content on the PlayStation Store since August 2016 is included in the plaintiffs and can claim compensation.
The class action will first be considered in CAT. If he is confirmed by the tribunal as eligible for trial, the claim will be transferred to the British court.
A meeting on the procedure for considering the case was to be held on December 14, 2022.
On August 30, 2022, the Khoroshevsky District Court of Moscow decided to initiate a civil case against 28 people against Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe Limited, a division of the company in London, and Sony’s Moscow office. According to the definition on the acceptance of the statement of claim and the preparation of the case for trial, the defendants had to send written objections to the statement of claim by October 31, 2022, and a conversation between the parties was also scheduled for the same date.
Recall that in March Sony Interactive Entertainment blocked the PlayStation Store in Russia, restricted the operation of the PlayStation Plus subscription in the country and suspended the supply of devices and physical copies of games. Sony did not refund the money to the subscription user and services.
28 Russians, as part of a class action, demanded to return the opportunity to purchase games, provide access to the PlayStation Store and compensate for moral damage — 10 million rubles each. All plaintiffs are PlayStation users.
At the moment, the Khoroshevsky District Court of Moscow has scheduled a new conversation between the parties to the dispute for January 10. We are waiting for developments.
10. Wolfire Games’ antitrust lawsuit against Valve was dismissed
On November 19, 2022, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle dismissed an antitrust lawsuit filed by Wolfire Games against Valve due to the absence of violations of antitrust law in Valve’s actions.
Recall that Wolfire Games filed an antitrust lawsuit against Valve in April 2021. She accused the company of suppressing competition in the computer games market by exploiting Steam’s dominant position. The studio pointed out that Valve deprives publishers and developers of the opportunity to reduce prices when selling Steam keys on other sites and obliges them to pay a 30% commission, which results in artificially inflated pricing on all marketplaces.
In May 2022, the lawsuit was sent for a new review.
Wolfire’s statement of claim did not contain evidence indicating the formation of “Valve’s coercive practices leading to non-price antitrust violations, namely, a decrease in productivity and quality.” Moreover, the situation on the gaming market indicates the opposite — the number of games on different platforms is increasing, including on Steam. Also, the studio did not provide evidence of the fact of incurring losses from the allegedly illegal behavior of Valve.
Wolfire Games could file an amended statement of claim within 30 days from the date of publication of the court decision — until December 20, 2022.