pacman000 Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 (edited) Can they really claim Space War? I mean, it was a public domain game for DEC minicomputers first, right? I know they can claim the rights to Atari Inc's old code, but can they prevent someone else from making a game called Spacewar/Space War? Edited July 12, 2018 by pacman000 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pink Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 (edited) Can they really claim Space War? I mean, it was a public domain game for DEC minicomputers first, right? I know they can claim the rights to Atari Inc's old code, but can they prevent someone else from making a game called Spacewar/Space War? Soccer Golf Outlaw Command Casino Bowling Basketball Adventure Can they prevent anyone from using those words because they own the rights? Bwahahahahahaha Edited July 12, 2018 by Pink 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBerel Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 Nothing is "legally guaranteed" until a court case establishes standing through a legal challenge. Even government authorities issuing copyrights, patents or trademarks does not prevent a claim from being challenged. It's always just a matter of someone taking the effort and cost to litigate it. The fact that no one challenged the dipsh!ts "using" the the Colecovision trademark doesn't mean they have legal right to it. They just filed a highly questionable/fraudulent claim for it with the trademark office. Anybody could do that themselves. In the case of AtariSA, they probably have a pretty decent paper trail showing transfer of ownership of specific intellectual property, but you'd be surprised how often that stuff is just based on a list somebody came up with for a contract. Unless they have solid provenance showing transfer of ownership from each of the original holders, anything could be challenged in court if one was inclined. More often than not, a lot of these so called "ownership" claims are simply based on the fact that one outfit has been selling or using something previously. That doesn't necessarily mean they had any more right to that than anyone else. Many times the person or company who has legitimate rights has simply dropped off the map, and some vulture swooped in and snatched them up. That's been true with music forever. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 this is ATARIBOX JEOPARDY! (click title to play) 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Great Hierophant Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 Generic terms are the hardest to trademark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 Generic terms are the hardest to trademark. That's hot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+thanatos Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 Look what Woot just had up for sale. Space Sloths with tacos pillows!!! It must be a sign of some sort. AtacoSloths? 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Manhattan Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 this is ATARIBOX JEOPARDY! (click title to play) Obligatory. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+frankodragon Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 I think maybe Fred should go on the German version called Das Ist Jeopardy (as a she-male) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racerx Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 Can they really claim Space War? I mean, it was a public domain game for DEC minicomputers first, right? I know they can claim the rights to Atari Inc's old code, but can they prevent someone else from making a game called Spacewar/Space War? Given that Space Wars from Cinematronics and Space War from Vectorbeam were also in arcades in '77, and Space Wars was released on the Vectrex in '82, it would be fun to see "Atari" argue any kind of ownership of the title or game play. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KappaGuy99 Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 I quickly Google'd and couldn't find any info on how much they sold Battlezone for $250,000 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 Totally should've bid $5 for Math Gran Prix. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 Totally should've bid $5 for Math Gran Prix. I can think of some good scenarios for that ... get RARE and Criterion together to make it into a Burnout-style arcade racer ... with Kinect support ... where you shout out answers to math problems to pull off sweet jumps. Or, it could just stay with Atari. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_me Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 (edited) Can they really claim Space War? I mean, it was a public domain game for DEC minicomputers first, right? I know they can claim the rights to Atari Inc's old code, but can they prevent someone else from making a game called Spacewar/Space War? Someone could claim and register a "Space War" trademark, if it's not in use by someone else for video games. That's just the name and not any game properties. Atari/Infogrames purchased the old Atari game library so they own copyrights on code, graphics and sounds. Unlike copyrights, trademarks can be lost if not in use. And as already pointed out, registered trademarks can be challenged. Edited July 13, 2018 by mr_me 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pink Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 (edited) Nothing is "legally guaranteed" until a court case establishes standing through a legal challenge. Even government authorities issuing copyrights, patents or trademarks does not prevent a claim from being challenged. It's always just a matter of someone taking the effort and cost to litigate it. The fact that no one challenged the dipsh!ts "using" the the Colecovision trademark doesn't mean they have legal right to it. They just filed a highly questionable/fraudulent claim for it with the trademark office. Anybody could do that themselves. In the case of AtariSA, they probably have a pretty decent paper trail showing transfer of ownership of specific intellectual property, but you'd be surprised how often that stuff is just based on a list somebody came up with for a contract. Unless they have solid provenance showing transfer of ownership from each of the original holders, anything could be challenged in court if one was inclined. More often than not, a lot of these so called "ownership" claims are simply based on the fact that one outfit has been selling or using something previously. That doesn't necessarily mean they had any more right to that than anyone else. Many times the person or company who has legitimate rights has simply dropped off the map, and some vulture swooped in and snatched them up. That's been true with music forever. That's what I was saying earlier when that company Riverwest/Dormitus that "owns" The Coleco trademarks was claiming to own Cingular because AT&T "abandoned" it and that other company Retro something claiming "rights" to the Nextel name for the same reason was insanely stupid, because giant corporations like AT&T and Sprint aren't just going to sit idle and do nothing and let it happen, and they have the money and resources to take legal action if they wish and could easily bankrupt some teeny no-name flyby night company if they so wish. And they definitely know the rules and regulations a lot better and have their ducks in a row in regards to stuff like that. Edited July 13, 2018 by Pink Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+frankodragon Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 Speaking of "Weird Al", I think this song best describes Atari SA, especially when Spring of 2019 arrives and they don't have their product yet. Picture Fred singing this to all his victims customers: 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari PAC-MAN Fan Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inky Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 If this single forum truly does manage to bring down the entire Atari corporation, I call dibs on the movie rights. There was a rumor that a few years ago Leonardo DiCapprio was going to make a movie about Atari, and that he had dibs on playing Nolan Bushnell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 Huhuhuhuhuh. If you read it aloud, you can make the last word sound like "doodie." Two people named Holger in the same scampaign? What are the odds? Gotta love these announcements of announcements. I wonder why they do this? I have a theory. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBeefy Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 Huhuhuhuhuh. If you read it aloud, you can make the last word sound like "doodie." 1 Holger the first.png Two people named Holger in the same scampaign? What are the odds? 2 Holger the second.png Gotta love these announcements of announcements. I wonder why they do this? I have a theory. Real Soon Now.png It shouldn't be more expensive because they should be charging more than what they need by a chunk. Only way it will go bad is if they realize their design won't work or catches on fire/blows up due to no venting. You can't call it a scam yet. They haven't delayed a crazy amount of times yet. Actually calling it a scam sets off those in huge favor of this. Because in order for it to be a scam they have to steal the money by not delivering. Maybe we should be referring it to Damnpaign because this seems damned from the start? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 You can't call it a scam yet. They haven't delayed a crazy amount of times yet. Actually calling it a scam sets off those in huge favor of this. Because in order for it to be a scam they have to steal the money by not delivering. Maybe we should be referring it to Damnpaign because this seems damned from the start? If they can "pre-announce" that they're building a console, why can't I "pre-announce" something of my own? Delay is less important an indicator of a scampaign than dishonesty. I think they've shown plenty of that. Damnpaign looks weird, and if you speak it aloud, sounds like "dampen," as in to dampen a mood. Hmm. Maybe you're onto something there. Moist. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaysWithWolves Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 Just because they raised ~$3 million does not negate all the red flags of it being either a scam or incompetently run. Even eventually producing exactly what they're promising doesn't negate that, either. There were many danger signs with this project. As Flojomojo has mentioned before, "scam" is just shorthand. One might even say lying about one's competency to create something is a scam, or "dishonest scheme", too. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inky Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 I'm announcing that I will make an announcement about an announcement that will announce the announcing of an important announcement. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaysWithWolves Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 I'm announcing that I will make an announcement about an announcement that will announce the announcing of an important announcement. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts