Hasbro Interactive Pursues Copyright Infringement Suit
Added Feb. 8, 2000
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Hasbro Interactive
and its subsidiary Atari Interactive have filed suit in federal court to enforce the companies' copyrights to some of the world's most popular computer and video games, according to a corporate press release issued Tuesday.
The complaint alleges that eGames, GT Interactive and several other comapnies have copied games for which Hasbro Interactive owns the exclusive copyrights, including the arcade classics Centipede, Asteroids and Missle Command. In addition to eGames and GT Interactive, the complaint names Xtreme Games, MVP Software, Webfoot Technologies and Varcon Systems.
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"Hasbro Interactive has the best brands and content in this business and we will vigorously protect what is rightfully ours," Hasbro Interactive president Tom Dusenberry said in the release. "Consumers should be aware that the companies named in this suit are making games based on properties they don't own or control."
Among the games in question are such titles as "TetriMania" and "Mac-Man," which Hasbro Interactive considers to be obvious knock-offs of the well-known games Tetris and Pac-Man, which are both under license to Hasbro Interactive. In 1999, Hasbro Interactive released a new version of Teatris called The Next Tetris, and a new PC version of Pac-Man is scheduled for later this year.
"Games such as Teatris, Pac-Man and the Atari titles Missle Command and Centipede are immensely popular because their rightful owners and licensees have invested resources to develop and promote them," said Dusenberry.
Hasbro General Counsel Barry Nagler added, "content is Hasbro's core business and other companies don't have the right to profit from the success of our intellectual properties and our ability to make them successful. We're committed to protecting our brands and licenses to the full extent of the law."
Filed Tuesday morning at the U.S. District Court in Boston, Massachusetts, the complaint seeks to require the defendants to cease production and distribution of, and to recall and destroy, the following games: Intergalactic Exterminator, 3D Astro Blaster, TetriMania, TetriMania Master, 3D Maze Man, Tunnel Blaster, UnderWorld, XTRIS, Patriot Command, HemiRoids, Bricklayer, 3D TetriMadness, Mac-Man, 3D Munch Man, and 3D Munch Man II. Hasbro Interactive is also seeking damages.
Hasbro Interactive acquired the rights to many Atari properties for the home consumer market in 1998. Since then, Hasbro Interactive has released new 3D interactive versions of Centipede and Missle Command, as well as a compilation of the original, 2D games, Atari Arcade Hits.
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