Dead Rising vs. Dawn of the Dead

It seems that Capcom and MKR Productions (they hold the rights to Dawn of the Dead) was in the process of a legal battle over Capcom’s Dead Rising game.

Dead Rising is a video game on the Xbox 360 where you play a guy trapped in a mall with zombies.  You spend majority of the game killing zombies in creative ways.  Dawn of the Dead (and its remake) is a movie about a group of people trapped in a mall while hiding from zombies.  You can see how one would think Dead Rising is a video game version of Dawn of the Dead.

Now I have played Dead Rising and I have seen Dawn of the Dead (and countless other zombie movies).  My opinion is the only things the two have in common is that there are zombies and a mall.

Capcom is trying to prove that zombies attacking a mall is an “unprotected theme” and I think it should be.  That is like the creators of Godzilla suing over Cloverfield because the theme of a giant monster attacking a major city is theirs. 

Now I can understand MKR’s claim if the story for the game matched the game, but it really doesn’t. 

My biggest problem with this is obvious (or it is if you have read all my stories so far).  I have my Zombie Apocalypse series I am working on.  So what happens if the two characters go to a mall and battle zombies there?  Am I going to get sued by MKR Productions now?  The simple of zombies at the mall should be an unprotected theme, but a more specific plot should be protect.  And if Capcom’s Dead Rising followed the same plot as Dawn of the Dead then I would be all for MKR’s suit.  But it doesn’t so I am not.