Macaroni and cheese. Siskel and Ebert. Nintendo and litigation. Some things just go together. From the late 80s on, they have racked up quite a record of lawsuits. Here, we present a list of Nintendo's lawsuits over the years. If you have more info on any suit listed, or have a suit I don't have, please let me know.
1983
MCA Vs. Nintendo
Case: Nintendo is sued by MCA (the motion picture company) for
allegidly copyright infringement, over the title of Nintendo's then-new hit game,
"Donkey Kong", claiming that the name was too similar to MCA's "King
Kong".
Outcome:The case was dismissed, with the judge citing that the term
"kong" was generic and that MCA had no claim to it.
1987-1991(?)
Nintendo Vs. Blockbuster Entertainment
Case: Nintendo sues the Blockbuster video rental chain for
photocopying NES manuals. These photocopies of the manuals were then rented out with the
NES games, obviously so the original manuals were not at risk of being lost or damaged
when they were rented.
Outcome: Nintendo legally forces them to stop photocopying the
manuals. I assume Blockbuster then included original copies of instruction manuals with
game rentals. Can you say... "lame"? :)
1988
Nintendo Vs. Camerica Ltd.
Case: Nintendo claims Camerica, in making a wireless NES Advantage
clone, violates their patents.
Outcome: unknown
1989
Nintendo Vs. Camerica Ltd.
Case: Nintendo claims Camerica violated their patents in creating
the Game Genie for the NES.
Outcome: Game Genie release is delayed for 2 years in the US (the
Game Genie was successfully released in Canada a year before the US).
1989
Nintendo Vs. Tengen
Case: Nintendo sues Tengen over patent violations, because Tengen,
in order to bypass the licensee lock-out chip, they simply copied the 10NES program which
is in the US CIC lockout chip. They gained the info needed when they were a Nintendo
licensee, and using this fact to trick the US Patent Office into allowing them to access
the needed data. Outcome: Nintendo was unable to stop Tengen, and dropped the suit
or something, for reasons I am not sure of.
1989
Nintendo Vs. Tengen
Case: Nintendo sues Tengen in the now famous case concerning who
had the legal right to sell Tetris. Nintendo proved they had gotten the license from the
original Russian creator, and that Tengen licensed it from a European company who didn't
have the right to issue licenses, because they didn't own the game; they just licensed it
themselves.
Outcome: All copies of Tengen Tetris are pulled from store shelves,
creating an instant collector's item.
1990
Nintendo Vs. Color Dreams
Case: Nintendo sues Color Dreams for producing NES games without an
official license.
Outcome: Unsure, but Nintendo failed in their suit, and Color
Dreams continued to produce unlicensed games. Nintendo probably failed, because unlike
Tengen, Color Dreams did not copy their 10NES program, which is inside each lockout chip,
to get around the lockout, and therefore did not violate any of Nintendo's copyrights or
patents.
1991
New York State Vs. Nintendo
Case:Then-New York State Attorney General (I can't remember his
name) sues Nintendo, claiming they have an illegal monopoly on the video game market.
Outcome: Nintendo agrees to give each Nintendo consumer a $5.00
certificate good on any licensed NES game; if you sunscribed to Nintendo Power, or sent in
a product registration card for your NES or game to Nintendo, you probably got one.
1994
Alpex Computer Corp. Vs. Nintendo
Case: Nintendo is sued by Alpex, claiming the NES infringed on
their patents. (This may ahve been for the newer style NES, I don't know for sure).
Nintendo's tactics for this case really shine, like a firebug's ass. They demanded a jury
to hear the case, then when the jury ruled against them they demanded a mistrial, on the
grounds that allowing a jury to settle a patent dispute was unconstitutional! My source is
the accual transcripts that are unfortunatly no longer available on the web where I read
them. Maybe sombody else has posted it elsewhere? (Thanks to zerothis@northcoast.com
for this info)
Outcome: Nintendo paid Alpex $208 million in damages
1995
Nintendo Vs. Samsung Electronics
Case: Nintendo alledgies Samsung helped spread various components
containing Nintendo software to third party companies, which produced illegal counterfeit
cartridges. In other words, they gave Nintendo's games to pirate outfits to produce
pirated games, including one owned by the Chinese government; not a surprise, considering
they are one of the world's leading pirate cart producers.
Outcome:Eventually Nintendo and Samsung settled their differences,
siting that while Samsung provided the compnents, they were not directly responcible for
the piracy, and they announced they would work together to stop piracy.
1997
Nintendo Vs. Games City
Case: Nintendo sued Games City
for selling Game Doctor (SNES backup device) and Doctor V64 (N64 backup device), as well
as CDs of pirated Nintendo software. In June, Nintendo got an injunction against Games
City from selling and advertising those controversial items.
Outcome: On October 25th 1997 Games City agreed to pay Nintendo
$100,000 and to stop selling any devices or software that violate Nintendo copyrights and
patents.
1997
Nintendo Vs. Prima Publishing
Case: Nintendo sued Prima Publishing for allegidly copying a
screenshot map of the N64 game "Goldeneye" from Nintendo's own official player's
guide of the game and using it in Prima's own unofficial guide. According to a former
employee of Prima, the map was very convincingly a copy of Nintendo's own map. There had
been some level of tension between Nintendo and Prima since the beginning of the SNES era,
over copyright and trademark issues, this was, reportedly, the boiling point which
resulted in Nintendo taking Prima to court.
Outcome: The judge dismissed the case, stating the map was
"public knowledge" and Nintendo had no case against them (?). But here is the
real shocker, Prima and Nintendo resolved their differences shortly after, and Prima is
now authorized to make official player's guides, such as their recent
Pokemon player's guide!
1999 (New!)
Nintendo Vs. Bung Enterprises Ltd.
Case: Nintendo sued Bung
Enterprises, of Hong Kong, alledging that their backup devices for the Game Boy, SNES
and N64 violated Nintendo's copyright.
Outcome: TNintendo got an injuction against Bung, and they cannot
sell nor advertise any of their Nintendo game copier/backup devices in the US
Sources for some of the lawsuits: tsr's NES archive, NES World, EGM2 #9, Zerothis
2000 (New!)
Ali Geller Vs. Nintendo
Case: Famous spoon bending psychic Ali Geller sues Nintendo of
Japan, of America and of Europe. He alledges that the psychic, utensil armed bad guy
Pokemon character Kadabra, is his image and likeness, and filed claim for a whopping $100
million!. Perhpas this guy needs to get a life, or at least a real job?
Outcome: Unknown, this is a very recent suit. I suspect it will be thrown out tho
:)