Dead Rising and Dawn of the Dead

So apparently MKR (owners of the copyrights to George Romero's zombie flicks) has been upset about the similarity between the movie Dawn of the Dead and the game Dead Rising. Dead Rising's publisher Capcom has filed a suit for a declaratory judgment (a preemptive lawsuit for a court to decide that the game does not infringe any IP rights that MKR may have before MKR can bring its own suit). The Hollywood Reporter has a PDF of suit here.

From Capcom's filing, it appears that they've been in discussions with MKR since before the game was published but have decided to get the matter settled after MKR started copying letters to Microsoft and Best Buy with their claims.

MKR would likely have two main claims; copyright infringement and trademark infringement which I'll talk about now:

Copyright
One of the basic maxims of copyright law is that copyright doesn't protect an idea, only the expression of an idea. MKR has a copyright in the specific movie/script involving zombies in a mall, but no copyright in the idea of zombies in a mall. However, copyright also extends to so-called "derivative works," which would include making a game based on the movie/script for DotD. The question is whether DR would be considered a derivative or adaptation of the movie. While the two share similar subject matter, and DR has a character who looks a bit like Ving Rhames, without any copying of significant portions of action, dialogue, or scenes that were taken from the movie, it's unlikely that a court would find for MKR here.

Trademark
For a trademark claim, MKR would have to show two things: ownership of a "mark" (a designation of origin or brand) by use, and a likelihood of confusion between the defendant's product and that mark. MKR has a registered TM in "George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead" (registration is not necessary to have an enforceable trademark but it's pretty good evidence of owning a mark). DR would have to confuse consumers into believing that the game came from the same people as DotD. The only argument here really is that "Dead" is in the name of both. It would be a different matter if the game was named "Rise of the Dead" as it follows the formula of the movie names a bit more, but it's still probably a long shot.

There're also probably some claims to be made under common-law dilution or unfair competition laws, but those differ from state to state and all probably have similar problems to those above.

My Thoughts
MKR's seem pretty shifty to me. The fact that they didn't file a suit in the 2 years that the game's been out makes me think they knew that they didn't have that good of a shot and were fishing for a settlement. I assume Capcom is filing a suit to force MKR into putting up or shutting up and we'll hear of a settlement soon.

(Small disclaimer: I haven't seen either the original Dawn of the Dead or the remake and I just started playing through the game, so any claims about the story of either are based on some quick Wikipedia work)