The Call of Duty, a first-person shooting game, still has a loyal fanbase even though there are now a lot of new and exciting shooting online games. It's known for its realistic modern warfare visuals, exciting gameplay, and accurately portrayed environments--especially the iconic battle jeeps or Humvees that populate the game. The use of humvees by Activision or Blizzard--the creator of Call of Duty--in their game has been a major issue with American Motors General Corporation or AM Generals, the manufacturer of Humvees because the online game used their iconic product without their permission.
AM General File a lawsuit against Blizzard
According to a report by Motor Trend, AM General filed a lawsuit against the creator of Call of Duty because the game had been prominently displaying the Humvee without their permission. The manufacturer of the Humvee said that Activision has accumulated billions of dollars through their game by featuring AM General's battle jeep without any approval from them. Since 2016, more than 250 million copies of the video game series have been sold by Activision which has brought back more than $15 billion in revenue.
"At the expense of AM General and consumers who are deceived into believing that AM General licenses the games or is somehow connected with or involved in the creation of the games," Humvee's manufacturer said.
The US Army has been served by Humvee for more than three decades and will continue to do its job behind the scenes until 2050 together with the Army and US Marines.
Blizzard (Activision) wins the battle against AM General
The conflict between the two companies has now ended as Activision recently won the lawsuit by American Motors General Corporation against them. Activision stated that although they used it on Call of Duty, they did not feature the battle jeeps in their games were AM General hasn't permitted.
The suit was dismissed in favor of Activision since there was no infringement done by the company by featuring Humvees. District Court Judge George Daniels, said that the popular online game passed the "Rogers Test" which protects companies' trademarks brands.
"It was metaphysically possible for Activision to have produced video games without the presence of Humvees," said Daniels.
"If realism is an artistic goal, then the presence in modern warfare games of vehicles employed by actual militaries undoubtedly furthers that goal," he added.
Without battle jeeps or Humvees, an online game about modern warfare cannot properly depict the scenery of the battlefield which is stated on the given amendment which applies to COD. The online game is not misleading since the military is still using humvees in their day-to-day operations. This led to the win by Activision against AM General that will still give the players an authentic visual of the real battlefield.
