4 ms·

The sole purpose of TTC seems to be licensing and protecting Tetris. They don't make any games, but recently have started selling merch online. There is no cop

The sole purpose of TTC seems to be licensing and protecting Tetris. They don't make any games, but recently have started selling merch online. There is no copyright on Tetris, the lawsuits were based on "trade dress", which is silly, since nearly every Tetris game looks different. I actually have my own clone online, and so far haven't heard a peep from TTC. knocks on wood I think maybe it's because they've relaxed a bit in that area, but I could be wrong. You can see it here if you like: https://simon.lc/tetr.js/ https://simon.lc/tetr.js/

bitwize 9y ago
The developers of the clone Mino had to pull their game because it was considered "substantially similar" for copyright purposes. In general, game clones that resemble the original, even if they use all-original assets, are potentially infringing; see Atari v. Phillips. TTC asserts copyright over all Tetris-type games, and also has trademarks on the suffix -tris, the Russian folk song Korobeiniki when used in a video game, and the shapes of the tetrominoes themselves. Maybe someone can get a court ruling on whether the abstract concept of a tetromino game is copyrightable (pray it doesn't go before the CAFC), or get the vague trademarks overturned, but most unlicensed clone makers are wisely unwilling to die on the Tetris-clone hill.
- simonlc 9y ago
  Do you have a source for the song being used is part of the trade dress? > Tetris Holding argues that Mino infringed the following copyrightable elements: > - Seven Tetrimino playing pieces made up of four equally-sized square joined at their sides; > - The visual delineation of individual blocks that comprise each Tetrimino piece and the display of their borders; > - The bright, distinct colors used for each of the Tetrimino pieces; > - A tall, rectangular playfield (or matrix), 10 blocks wide and 20 blocks tall; > - The appearance of Tetriminos moving from the top of the playfield to its bottom; > - The way the Tetrimino pieces appear to move and rotate in the playfield; > - The small display near the playfield that shows the next playing piece to appear in the playfield; > - The particular starting orientation of the Tetriminos, both at the top of the screen and as shown in the "next piece" display; > - The display of a "shadow" piece beneath the Tetriminos as they fall; > - The color change when the Tetriminos enter lock-down mode; > - When a horizontal line fills across the playfield with blocks, the line disappears, and the remaining pieces appear to consolidate downward; > - The appearance of individual blocks automatically filling in the playfield from the bottom to the top when the game is over; > - The display of "garbage lines" with at least one missing block in random order; and > - The screen layout in multiplayer versions with the player's matrix appearing most prominently on the screen and the opponents' matrixes appearing smaller than the player's matrix and to the side of the player's matrix. It's hilarious that they were able to copyright tetrOminos (a mathematical name) and call them Tetriminos(tm). I honestly think they have greatly relaxed trying to take down clones as long as they are not distributed on any platform like Steam or an app store. There are plenty of clones which copy certain versions of Tetris identically and TTC doesn't seem to care. Games like Tricky Towers are able to go around the trade dress, but sadly Spaera had to make changes. It's very sad that the spirit of the game is a homebrew personal project that was freely distributed became one of the most controlled games ever. All they do now is make money off the name while release garbage. So people make their own games, not to steal from them, just because their games are so shit and there's a market who wants a better game.
  - bitwize 9y ago
    http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=77037539&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=77037539&caseType=SERIAL_N...

bitwize 9y ago

The developers of the clone Mino had to pull their game because it was considered "substantially similar" for copyright purposes. In general, game clones that resemble the original, even if they use all-original assets, are potentially infringing; see Atari v. Phillips. TTC asserts copyright over all Tetris-type games, and also has trademarks on the suffix -tris, the Russian folk song Korobeiniki when used in a video game, and the shapes of the tetrominoes themselves. Maybe someone can get a court ruling on whether the abstract concept of a tetromino game is copyrightable (pray it doesn't go before the CAFC), or get the vague trademarks overturned, but most unlicensed clone makers are wisely unwilling to die on the Tetris-clone hill.

simonlc 9y ago
Do you have a source for the song being used is part of the trade dress? > Tetris Holding argues that Mino infringed the following copyrightable elements: > - Seven Tetrimino playing pieces made up of four equally-sized square joined at their sides; > - The visual delineation of individual blocks that comprise each Tetrimino piece and the display of their borders; > - The bright, distinct colors used for each of the Tetrimino pieces; > - A tall, rectangular playfield (or matrix), 10 blocks wide and 20 blocks tall; > - The appearance of Tetriminos moving from the top of the playfield to its bottom; > - The way the Tetrimino pieces appear to move and rotate in the playfield; > - The small display near the playfield that shows the next playing piece to appear in the playfield; > - The particular starting orientation of the Tetriminos, both at the top of the screen and as shown in the "next piece" display; > - The display of a "shadow" piece beneath the Tetriminos as they fall; > - The color change when the Tetriminos enter lock-down mode; > - When a horizontal line fills across the playfield with blocks, the line disappears, and the remaining pieces appear to consolidate downward; > - The appearance of individual blocks automatically filling in the playfield from the bottom to the top when the game is over; > - The display of "garbage lines" with at least one missing block in random order; and > - The screen layout in multiplayer versions with the player's matrix appearing most prominently on the screen and the opponents' matrixes appearing smaller than the player's matrix and to the side of the player's matrix. It's hilarious that they were able to copyright tetrOminos (a mathematical name) and call them Tetriminos(tm). I honestly think they have greatly relaxed trying to take down clones as long as they are not distributed on any platform like Steam or an app store. There are plenty of clones which copy certain versions of Tetris identically and TTC doesn't seem to care. Games like Tricky Towers are able to go around the trade dress, but sadly Spaera had to make changes. It's very sad that the spirit of the game is a homebrew personal project that was freely distributed became one of the most controlled games ever. All they do now is make money off the name while release garbage. So people make their own games, not to steal from them, just because their games are so shit and there's a market who wants a better game.
- bitwize 9y ago
  http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=77037539&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=77037539&caseType=SERIAL_N...