Results of 2021: Alexandra Kurdyumova and Alina Davletshina from VERSUS.legal about the main thing for the year

We continue to summarize the results of 2021 together with top managers and experts of the gaming industry (and related ones). Next up is an interview with Alexandra Kurdyumova and Alina Davletshina, senior partner and senior lawyer at VERSUS.legal.

Alexandra and AlinaHow did 2021 go for the company?

Alexandra: 2021 is the year for VERSUS.Legal and its VERSUS gaming direction.Gamedev has become successful: there are many more projects and new companies with whom we managed to work, and the number of those who returned again has grown. We have significantly expanded the team and today we are optimistic about 2022.

This year we have worked very hard: we have written hundreds of documents, accompanied investment deals in studios around the world (from Cyprus to the USA), conducted a large number of negotiations (for example, agreed on publishing in China), relocated companies and assets, fought for intellectual property, helped the guys to rise in the stores, removing clones.

From fascinating cases in our practice in 2021:

• they helped win a legal dispute with a user blocked in the game who wanted to return money for lost in-game assets;
• we consulted an IT solution to circumvent the rules on mandatory pre-installation of Russian software on smartphones and other equipment;
• they hired an employee in the UK and then terminated the contract with him;
• fought with clones of games and defeated them;
• draft regulations of the esports tournament;
• we checked the risks of similarity with the characters of another famous game (and also checked the stickers for the correctness of using the image of a celebrity);
• we have been fighting the registration of a competitor’s trademark with the name of the game in 9 jurisdictions (and we continue).

We are also currently having a dispute at the World Intellectual Property Organization, the results should be at the end of the year, so we are holding our fists.

Alina: And we also performed, recorded podcasts, participated in the filming of a documentary about pirate games, wrote articles and replenished our legal knowledge base. The material that I am most proud of this year is an article from Playkot about the launch of games in China.

And more recently, we held an event together with SberGames, Green Grey and Yohoho Games with an analysis of the publishing agreement. The event was dedicated to where legal risks “hide” and what pitfalls to be afraid of.

At the webinar, we “pushed” publishers and developers, and then tried to find a compromise possible for both sides. The discussion turned out to be very hot. It seems that the question of “balance” in their relationship has matured in the community. I think it’s time to start talking openly about this, including so that indies don’t get into unpleasant situations.

This topic inspired us to launch our research: we want to find out what problems publishers and developers face in their relationships with each other. As lawyers, we will try to find a solution and present the results in the spring of 2022.

What event or trend of 2021 do you consider central within your niche?

Alexandra: We are pleased to note that lawyers have begun to come more often for the “prevention” of problems before they become difficult to resolve. There is a feeling that the legal awareness of the game dev market is growing. This is very pleasing. For our part, we are trying very hard to help this: we write articles, hold events. We will continue to do this next year.

Alina: I will highlight two trends, although I am not sure that I can call them full-fledged new trends:

• attention to legal issues of labor law;
• working with children’s personal data.

This year there were several tasks from different companies that were united by the same motivation: the care and attention of employers to their team. It seems that this is obvious: the happier the team, the better the product. But this year, this logic has found new facets (in addition to classroom offices and ping-pong tables): employers are ready to turn to lawyers to establish an atmosphere in the team.

What do I mean by that? First of all, employers have become willing to pay for legal assistance to their employees on their personal issues (this may be providing a lawyer’s contact in case of urgent legal problems, and assistance on urgent service or legal aspects of health).

We also noticed that more and more companies are moving away from gray schemes, switching to “white” labor compensation. And this year we have been more often engaged in motivational programs, structured bonuses and options so that their happy recipients do not have problems with taxes.

In general, it now seems to us that building an HR brand of companies is now closely related to legal work.

About the personal data of minors is an even bigger surprise for me. Quite a lot of time has passed since the adoption of GDPR, COPPA and other major laws, there have been no high-profile cases and fines (except for the TikTok case) this year. At the same time, a large number of clients developing games with low age ratings decided to engage in privacy in this area this year. Most of the year was spent on solving problems in which companies want to maintain a balance between the desire to comply with the strict requirements of regulators and the unwillingness to lose players. Agegate, math problems, parental consent — all these are popular hashtags of our working year.

I regret to add that, in my opinion, this year there were few epic court cases (well, not counting the most epic and apple), as well as laws and bills that could be called gamechangers. For Russia, perhaps, only the first package of IT benefits was significant. Now we are preparing for the second one.

What will be the stake in the development of the company in 2022?

Alexandra: VERSUS.gamedev continues to be one of the key areas within the company. We expect its further growth: there are even more game studios, publishers and foundations among our clients, as well as even more new projects, collaborations and joint initiatives. We will make every effort to ensure that in 2022 everything will be exactly like this!

In addition, we want to be more involved in education: we want to carry legal education to game dev, and communicate with young lawyers, show by examples what an exciting industry gaming law is.

Alina: And I also see that this year there is no traditional question about what we played this year. “You didn’t ask, but we will answer.”

My personal favorite this year is Twelve Minutes (more looped time loops and kills!).

And here’s what other lawyers from VERSUS.legal answered: FIFA 22 (“crazy realism!“), Mass Effect: Legendary Edition (“one of the very few high-quality remaster collections that reminds you that games used to be made with a soul“), Resident Evil: Village, Unpacking (“made an impression interesting ideas and mechanics“), Scarlet Hollow, Diablo II Resurrected (“the remake we deserved“), Age of Empires 4 and King’s Bounty 2.

Thanks to this game year, we are waiting for the next one!