tetris laws?

Rhino

Is tetris copyrighted?

If I make a tetris game, will I get sued? If the game is for profit?

fforde

I believe the suffix -tris is copyrighted, so you can't make a game called Blocktris or Cubtris, or anything like that. I don't think that game mechanics can be copyrighted though, so so long as you name it something else I think you'll be fine.

tdonlan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris#History

Relevant section

According to circulars available from the United States Library of Congress, a game cannot be copyrighted (only patented), which would invalidate much of TTC's copyright claim on the game,[7] leaving the trademark on Tetris as TTC's most significant claim on any government-granted monopoly.

Some players prefer Tetris brand games; others prefer homemade tetromino games downloaded from the Internet, which are given names such as "N-Blox" or "Lockjaw" so as not to infringe trademarks. In late 1997[8] and in mid-2006,[9] TTC's legal counsel sent cease and desist letters to web sites that misused the Tetris trademark to refer to homemade tetromino games.

Feel free to program a tetris-clone. I sure did in an intro comp-sci course.

Rhino

ok, thanks guys!

So if I understand it right, I can make a tetris game; just have to call it something like "Blockly, Block Block game: Now with extra Block on Block action!"

DrFrylock

Disclaimer: IANAL.

There are basically three types of intellectual property law you have to worry about: patents, trademarks, and copyrights. Patents (if there were any) could protect a whole class of tetris-like games, and then you'd be in for some trouble. Trademarks can protect the Tetris name, but not the look and feel of the game. Copyright certainly protects the game code, and probably protects the look-and-feel of the game, although this is still a legal gray area.

This goes back to the early 1980s. Back then, people were pumping quarters into Pac-Man machines as fast as they could and, as a result, a whole raft of Pac-Man clones appeared. Atari (becoming increasingly litigious and having acquired the rights to Pac-Man at substantial cost) went around suing. One of the suits (settled out of court) was against Ken Williams at Sierra, who had a programmer who was a whiz at hacking the Atari 800 machine and made a near-perfect Pac-Man clone (but later changed the game graphics to look like things other than Pac-Man). This case is well-detailed in Stephen Levy's Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. More on these cases and later cases is cataloged here. Later suits on non-Pac-Man products (like Lotus 1-2-3 and the Print Shop) went both ways on increasingly subtle points.

Basically, if you make too-good a Tetris clone, you MAY be creating a "derivative work" of a copyrighted work, and thus you MAY be sued (successfully). Whether or not the Tetris rights-holders are actually suing is another matter, and as posters above have pointed out they may not be. This does not prevent them from suing in the future, though.

Echo

AFAIK (and IANAL), game mechanics cannot be patented.

That may or may not have changed with stupid intellectual property laws.

DrFrylock

Echo wrote: »

AFAIK (and IANAL), game mechanics cannot be patented.

That may or may not have changed with stupid intellectual property laws.

Game mechanics can almost assuredly be patented, as can nearly anything that people invent, although they often are not. Were I to invent Tetris I could easily write apparatus claims that covered a whole family of falling-block puzzle games. You can also patent specific internal mechanics, as Nintendo has done.

fforde

I am glad game developers are not a bunch of litigation happy jerks like the guys in... certain unnamed corporate software companies.

krapst78

The Tetris Company owns the trademark for 'Tetris' so you're best to stay clear from using that name.

Multiplayer Tetris was a pretty big hit in Korea back in 2002 and several online companies here all came out with their own versions of online Tetris. Many of these versions were pretty innovative allowing up to 16 players in a single match and using team mechanics with special items and combos. The big problem was that the companies had simply assumed Tetris was in the public domain like poker or go-stop. It wasn't until TTC threatened litigation in 2002/2003 that they realized that they had broken the law. Many of the companies went into licensing talks with TTC to work out a deal to continue servicing their games. In the end NHN through their Hangame network negotiated an exclusive licensing contract which forced the other variants out of the Korean online market.

One of the more interesting patented game mechanics is the 'ghost mode' available in many racing games. Gamasutra recently ran an article about how Midway has been able to make money by licensing this patent rather than litigating at http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1489/hard_drivin_hard_bargainin_.php.

Rhino

k. I'm going to make a Tetris clone and call it the "Blocky Block Block Game".


Also what about Legos? Can you make a generic Lego-like "Block" game (video or RL) as long as you call it something like "Interlocking Block Game"?