Gaming & Interactive Media
Gaming & Interactive Media
Hanson Bridgett is on the cutting edge of interactive entertainment, artificial intelligence, and emerging technology, offering sophisticated U.S. and international counsel for video games, mobile apps, new interactive media, and the creator economy. Our team combines technical fluency, cultural awareness, and hard earned judgment with a genuinely global perspective — helping clients navigate brand and content protection not only in the United States, but across key international markets such as Europe and China, where enforcement leverage and commercial outcomes are often shaped.
Building on the firm’s deep entertainment and intellectual property capabilities, we deliver practical, high value legal guidance that helps clients protect creativity, manage risk, and grow sustainably. As a full service law firm, we frequently serve as outside general counsel to interactive entertainment and technology companies, providing a single, coordinated legal partner that integrates IP strategy and enforcement with corporate, privacy, employment, tax, and commercial counseling to support launches, partnerships, and long term growth.
Perspective Across Technology Cycles
What distinguishes our work is not only subject matter expertise or technical knowledge — it is perspective.
We have advised clients through multiple waves of digital innovation, from early virtual worlds and online platforms, through prior eras of digital rights monetization tied to entertainment and celebrity brands, to the rise of NFT and metaverse markets, and now into the current landscape of user generated content and AI enabled creation and distribution.
That experience allows us to help clients separate what is genuinely new from familiar legal and business challenges taking new forms — ownership and authorship, control over distribution, risk allocation, enforcement leverage, platform dependence, and long term brand value. We apply lessons learned from earlier cycles to help clients move quickly without repeating past mistakes, focus resources where protection matters most, and make decisions that will still hold up after market enthusiasm cools.
This combination of historical perspective, technical understanding, and pragmatic legal judgment allows us to serve as a steady strategic partner to creators, platforms, studios, and developers operating at internet speed.
Relevant Experience
We support interactive entertainment, new media, and creator economy clients across the full lifecycle of brand and content protection — from traditional trademark, copyright, and licensing matters to emerging technologies such as blockchain, Web3, user generated content, and AI assisted works.
We bring particular depth in intellectual property strategy, enforcement, and commercialization. Our approach is grounded in established legal doctrine and informed by technical fluency. Our team includes multiple attorneys with formal computer science and developer backgrounds, enabling us to engage meaningfully with how platforms, software systems, and generative AI tools actually operate — and to translate that understanding into practical, business aligned legal strategies.
Core Services
Our experience includes:
- Brand and product name strategy for games, apps, studios, and digital experiences, including clearance, risk assessment, naming guardrails, and brand architecture
- Trademark portfolio management and enforcement in the U.S. and key international markets, aligned with launch timing, growth milestones, and commercialization plans
- Copyright counseling and registration strategy for game content, characters, audiovisual works, and creator led franchises
- UGC and creator economy IP frameworks, including creator and contributor agreements, content submission terms, rights grants, collaboration structures, and monetization pathways
- Platform aware IP strategy, addressing the intersection of intellectual property rights with platform terms of service, content policies, and enforcement mechanics—recognizing that ownership, control, and remedies are often shaped as much by platform rules as by formal IP law
- Online and marketplace enforcement, including DMCA and takedown strategy, app store disputes, impersonation and fraud, domain name disputes, and coordinated brand protection programs across major platforms
- Offensive and defensive disputes, including pre litigation counseling, TTAB proceedings, and escalation planning
- Licensing and commercialization, including IP licenses, co branding, merchandising and consumer products, distribution, promotions, sponsorships, and collaborations
- Blockchain, Web3, and digital asset counseling connected to brand development, naming, consumer facing terms, platform risk, and commercialization structures
- Startup and growth stage counsel, including entity formation, governance, financings, strategic partnerships, M&A support, and scalable contracting
- Cross functional support through our corporate, privacy and data security, employment, litigation, and tax teams to deliver 360 degree legal solutions for fast growing businesses
Representative Clients
Studios, platforms, and creators need legal advice that respects product velocity, community dynamics, and platform realities.
We counsel clients across the interactive entertainment ecosystem — from early stage startups to established brands with global reach — helping them identify which assets matter most to protect, prioritize filings and enforcement strategically, and design right sized protection programs that support business goals.
Our experience includes work for:
- Leading global social media and online gaming platforms, advising on trademark and copyright enforcement, app store disputes, impersonation and fraud, and scalable takedown programs
- Entertainment and streaming services, including some of the most popular studios and international series of all time, encompassing brand protection, enforcement, and downstream commercialization
- Top ranked mobile game developers, supporting naming strategy, global trademark portfolios, and enforcement aligned with rapid release cycles
- Major entertainment studios and content producers, advising on IP protection, licensing, and commercialization across interactive, digital, and consumer facing channels
- Iconic video game companies and leading esports and creator brands, counseling on trademarks, licensing, merchandising, and online enforcement
- Creator led digital franchises emerging from UGC ecosystems, including virtual worlds and live service games, with a focus on character protection, licensing, and global enforcement
