Term
| What were the two games disputed in Data East v. Epyx? |
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Definition
| Karate Champ and World Karate Championship |
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Term
| What was the initial ruling on Data East v. Epyx? |
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Definition
| That the games were identical, and Epyx must recall World Karate Championship. |
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Term
| Why was the initial ruling in Data East v. Epyx overturned? |
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Definition
Due to the issue of proving infringement.
The creator System III did not have access to Karate Champ. The fighting elements of karate were not copyright protected, and the scenery and bonus effects, which would have been copyrighted, were made custom by System III and not copied. So there is no proof "copying" occurred. |
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Term
| Who purchased Atari Games from Namco creator Masaya Nakamura in 1987? |
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Definition
| Hideyuki Nakajima, the man behind Namco's American operations, and the original manager of Atari Japan. |
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Term
| What was the name of the subsidiary of Atari that Nakajima created, and why did he make it? |
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Definition
| Atari Corporation owned the Atari publishing brand, so Nakajima made Tengen. |
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Term
| What was the 10NES protocol? |
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Definition
| The programming inside the security chip of the NES. |
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Term
| How did Atari gain access to the 10NES program? |
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Definition
| They filed a false affidavit stating they needed a reproduction of the security program for a fictional legal case. |
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Term
| In Atari Games v Nintendo of America, who filed suit first, and what was the claim? |
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Definition
| Atari, claiming Nintendo was abusing its patent to create a monopoly. |
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Term
| What was Nintendo's initial response to the suit of Atari Games v. Nintendo? |
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Definition
| Patience, and then they threatened retailers not to carry Atari (Tengen) games. |
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Term
| What did Robert Stein do after seeing Tetris? |
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Definition
| Tried to negotiate the rights to distribute Tetris, then preemptively sold those rights to other companies before he even had a contract in hand. |
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Term
| What did the Atari version of Tetris have, that Nintendo's didn't? |
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Definition
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Term
| Who had to recall their NES version of Tetris? |
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Definition
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Term
| When first looking to develop console titles, did Accolade become a Sega Genesis licensee? |
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Definition
| No, they chose to reverse engineer the Genesis security by comparing code similarities in published games. |
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Term
| What was the significance of the Genesis III? |
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Definition
| It included an externally developed security system called the Trademark Security System (TMSS) |
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Term
| What was the trick to the TMSS? |
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Definition
| It displayed a Sega Licensee message at the beginning of the game, even if the game wasn't licensed. Opening grounds for a misrepresentation suit. |
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Term
| What was Accolade's defense in Accolade v Sega? |
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Definition
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Term
| What was the conclusion of Sega v Accolade? |
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Definition
| The initial judge had placed injunctions against Accolade, barring them from making Sega related products. An appeals court judge nullified these injunctions, setting a precedent for reverse engineering. |
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Term
| What sparked the events that led to State of NY and MD v Nintendo? |
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Definition
| A shortage of ROM chips used to make NES games. |
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Term
| What was the punishment levied on Nintendo in Nintendo v State of NY and MD? |
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Definition
| They had to issue out $5 coupons for games, pay for advertising for the coupons, and pay around 4.75 million in fees. |
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Term
| What was the dispute in Galoob Toys v Nintendo? |
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Definition
| The Game Genie was infringing on Nintendo game copyrights by altering them. |
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Term
| What was the result of Galoob Toys v Nintendo? |
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Definition
| Game Genie could not be proven to negatively impact Nintendo's sales. Nintendo had to be $15 million in lost sales to Galoob. |
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Term
| What was Patent "555", and who owned it? |
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Definition
| Patent 555 was the patent on ROM chip game cartridge technology, and was owned by Alpex Computer Corporation. |
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Term
| What was Nintendo's defense against Alpex's infringement suit? |
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Definition
| That the ROM technology Alpex owned the patent to, was inferior to the technology used on the NES, which was able to render animated cartoon characters. |
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Term
| What was the initial and final decision in Alpex v Nintendo? |
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Definition
| Initially Nintendo was found infringing, and faced paying $252 million. The decision was later reversed in an appeals court. |
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Term
| How did someone use the A and B buttons on Nintendo's "hands free" controller. |
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Definition
| Sipping or blowing into a straw. |
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Term
| What company was never pursued by Nintendo for non-licensed game distribution, and what sort of games did they make? |
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Definition
| Wisdom Tree, a small christian games company. |
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