Allen
Allen v. Academic Games League of America, Inc.
Opinion
Lead Opinion
Trimble, J.
Due to a controversy over the use of academic games in a tournament setting, Robert W. Allen (Allen) individually and d/b/a National Academic Games Project (NAGP) filed suit against Academic Games Leagues of America, Inc., R. Lawrence Liss, Neal Golden, James Davis, Stuart E. White, and Jean Skomra (collectively referred to as AGLOA) alleging copyright, trademark, and trade-name infringement. AGLOA filed a motion for summary judgment against Allen’s claims for copyright infringement. The district court granted the motion and Allen timely appealed.
I. FACTS
Since the 1960’s, Robert W. Allen has been involved in the development of academic games, including the games at issue in this appeal, A MAN CALLED MR. PRESIDENT, 1 EURO-CARD or WORLD CARD, 2 linguiSHTIK, 3 and PROPAGANDA. 4 Allen has been employed in various capacities for schools and school districts for the purpose of integrating the subject games, as well as other academic games, into classroom settings and student competitions. For several years, middle and high school level students from six states have participated in national tournaments that Allen conducted under the name of National Academic Games Project (NAGP), a…