Video Game Law Blog - 1985

Current issues in video game law.

• MONKEY BUSINESS (This is an archived case summary) This was an appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in favour of counterclaims brought by the defendants, [read more] Wednesday, 1 January 1986 | David Spratley

• Battle Of The Apes (This is an archived case summary) This case involved two gorillas, King Kong and Donkey Kong, and the rights of their respective owners, plaintiff Universal City Studios, Inc. (“Universal”), [read more] Tuesday, 1 January 1985 | David Spratley

• KING KONG CAUSES NO CONSUMER CONFUSION (This is an archived case summary) Universal City Studios (“Universal”), claiming ownership of the trade-mark “King Kong”, sued Nintendo Co. Ltd. and Nintendo of America, [read more] Sunday, 1 January 1984 | David Spratley

• Pac-Man V. Gobbleman (This is an archived case summary) Atari and Midway obtained an injunction against Tryom, whose game “Gobbleman” or “Nibbleman” embodied characters, symbols, and non-functional [read more] Thursday, 17 November 1983 | David Spratley

• Mighty Mouth Infringes Copyright, Trademark Of Pac-Man Case Summary (This is an archived case summary) This 1983 judgment of the District Court of Nebraska found the defendants liable for copyright and trademark infringement of three Midway coin-operated arcade [read more] Thursday, 1 September 1983 | Dani Lemon

• COPYRIGHT LAW PROTECTS VIDEO GAMES (This is an archived case summary.) Arctic International sold two types of circuit boards for coin-operated video games. The first increased the rate of play of "Galaxian" a video [read more] Saturday, 1 January 1983 | Chris Bennett

• FIRST CANADIAN VIDEO GAME COPYRIGHT CASE? (This is an archived case summary) This was one of the first Canadian cases to consider whether copyright could attach to the source code of a game. The defendant's game units would flash [read more] Wednesday, 8 December 1982 | David Spratley

• Pioneer Patent Case Intellivision Infringes (This is an archived case summary) Magnavox claimed that Mattel had, through the manufacture, use and sale of Intellivision video games, infringed Magnavox's “Television Gaming Apparatus” [read more] Wednesday, 21 July 1982 | Dani Lemon

• SPACE INVADERS CAUSE INDIGESTION? (This is an archived case summary) The plaintiff wanted to open a restaurant with forty tables equipped with built-in coin-operated video games, thus allowing patrons to dine and blast space invaders [read more] Friday, 1 January 1982 | David Spratley

• CRAZY KONG ENJOINED (This is an archived case summary) Nintendo sought and received an injunction against Elcon, who had been importing circuit boards manufactured by Falcon into the United States. Falcon was a past [read more] Friday, 1 January 1982 | David Spratley

• THERE IS COPYRIGHT IN VIDEO GAMES! Williams Electronics Inc. v. Artic International is a key case which established that copyright exists in video games. Williams Electronics manufactured and sold a coin-operated electronic video [read more] Friday, 1 January 1982 | Chris Bennett

• Pac-Man V. Jawbreaker The defendant published a game called “Jawbreaker” which was created by John Harris. Harris admitted to getting the idea from “Pac-Man”. Jawbreaker was already being marketed [read more] Monday, 28 December 1981 | David Spratley

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