The Law and Games

Nintendo arrived on the game scene early. Very early. Nintendo was established in 1889 and began making playing cards. It wasn’t until nearly a century later in 1975 did Nintendo enter the electronic game arena. Another 15 years later, Nintendo dominates the home video game market. With Nintendo’s domination of the market came a slew of legal battles. These battles arose because Nintendo’s unprecedented advance demonstrated to the rest of the business that the home market was massive, and the fight for those dollars was one of cunning and quick actions.

The companies vying for control understood that there were millions of dollars at stake. They also understood that any money they were after, others were after as well. With such a large stake of money, the companies knew they’d have to have to fight for every penny.

Consumer’s likes and dislikes were well established by this point. Arcade games had become very popular during the previous decade, and console game manufacturers knew the popular ones. If they were to make any money, they’d need to produce what the population wanted. Naturally this leads to similar products being made by various different companies. And of course, this leads to copyright infringement claims.

The first such claim came when Data East accused Epyx of copying their karate game, Karate Champ. Originally, Epyx was found in violation of Data East’s copyrights, but an appeals judge overturned the decision. Atari, however, locked in a battle with Nintendo, would not be so fortunate.

Atari and Nintendo have a long history of legal battles. It began when Nintendo accused Atari of illegally obtaining and using the security code to Nintendo’s Nintendo Entertainment System. Later, the suit would be over a well-known game called Tetris. Because of some miscommunications between the game’s creator, Alexey Pajitnov, and London businessman Robert Stein, multiple licenses to the game were sold. Each company receiving the license was unaware that the exact same license was sold to other companies. Atari and Nintendo both received licenses.

According to author Steven Kent (2001), “Atari released its Tengen version of Tetris in May, 1989; Nintendo released its version one month later” (p. 379). Again, two companies found themselves in a legal battle over similar games. Both Atari and Nintendo claimed that they owned the rights to manufacture the game. Kent (2001) claims that because of Nintendo’s weight, the judge determined the company was an almost sure-fire win, and ordered Atari to recall all of their Tetris cartridges. The matter never went to trial, and Nintendo was deemed to own the rights to the game. Atari was never allowed to sell the game they produced.

References

Kent, S.L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games. New York: Three Rivers Press