6 ms·

Just a word of warning, the Tetris Company is pretty aggressive about protecting their trademarks. I'd at least pick a different name, but sometimes they even g

Just a word of warning, the Tetris Company is pretty aggressive about protecting their trademarks. I'd at least pick a different name, but sometimes they even go after Tetris clones which don't use the name (e.g. Apotris). https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/adcac3eddac2e5555d87942db25b11e3654dbd17/2023/02/2023-02-10-tetris.md https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/adcac3eddac2e5555d87942d...

franze 1y ago
Thats why I never mention the T word once on my variation https://ihopethisisfun.franzai.com/ https://ihopethisisfun.franzai.com/
- rplnt 1y ago
  What they go after is not just the name, but the shapes. But I think you are fine as long as you do not monetize or get popular.
  - GolDDranks 1y ago
    Which is crazy, because the shapes are just an idea, and you can't copyright ideas. They also couldn't be a trademark infringement (IANAL, though) if you don't use them in your branding.
    - johnisgood 1y ago
      Trying to copyright shapes or blocks of various shapes is wild to me.
      - rplnt 1y ago
        They don't claim copyright on the mechanics. They pursue trademark violation. If it has falling tetrominos, it might be confused with Tetris, is the idea. You can use different shapes and be fine.
    - nashashmi 1y ago
      It is the series of shapes in one project that makes it Tetris. So think of it as a series of copied ideas in one product that make it a legal challenge
    - selcuka 1y ago
      > you can't copyright ideas They can go after you for anything. Whether or not that would hold in court is a separate question, but they count on the fact that you would be probably unwilling to test it.
      - GolDDranks 1y ago
        Yes, legal trolling is unfortunately a thing.
  - silveira 1y ago
    The shapes are called tetrominos, four squares connected orthogonally. Tetris the game, was created with pentominoes (5 squares) and scaled down to tetrominos. The game was inspired by physical puzzles where fill a rectangle with the shapes. So these shapes existed before Tetris. Would they go after the shapes? Possibly. See "Tetris Holding, LLC v. Xio Interactive, Inc.".
    - rplnt 1y ago
      One I remember is Blockles by OMGPop, which was a great multiplayer tetris-inspired game. There was legal threat, and they took it down in 2009.
  - mNovak 1y ago
    I could imagine the specific combination where the shapes colors match the original could get into trademark territory, as the colors have no in-game requirement to be those specific values.
  - akouzoukos 1y ago
    The name is the most important part, as it gives them a way to look for games that have their name but aren't theirs. But you're mostly right that they actually go after any game that has the same gameplay and is relatively popular, but only when they can easily issue a DMCA takedown. It's not like they ever said that this was their policy but you can see it bear out time and again. TETR.IO and Jstris are insanely popular games that have been up for years with no action against them since they aren't hosted on another platform/marketplace. This is also why Apotris got 2 DMCA takedowns on both Github and itch.io 3 months apart from each other, but after hosting the game on my own site, they haven't taken any further action in the past 2 years while it has continued to grow in popularity.
ddtaylor 1y ago
The Tetris mark as a whole has an amazing history. It's a mark that was created from the ashes of a state that didn't allow trade and was involved in conflict and is kind of a marvel at the amount of cooperation that needs to happen for something like this. It's basically all edge cases. Going after "clones" that have similar gameplay is wrong and they should (and likely do) know better. This has been resolved with Hasbro in the past as they were very litigious and went after clones of their games like Scrabble claiming their patent (and other parts) extended to the gameplay elements etc. IIRC the court rejected that argument and said that they can copyright or trademark the color combinations, names of points, etc. but they cannot patent the fundamental scrabble gameplay etc.
- jsheard 1y ago
  AIUI it's some weird legal sleight of hand where they don't (and can't) actually own the Tetris gameplay mechanics, but they have successfully argued in court that the appearance of the game constitutes their trade dress, and in practice you can't really implement the Tetris mechanics without the result looking like Tetris. TTC is the gaming version of Oracle in that one meme[1], 90% of their raison d'etre is just to scare people away from making Tetris clones or variants without their permission so they can keep collecting rent on it forever. [1] https://www.globalnerdy.com/2011/07/03/org-charts-of-the-big-tech-companies-plus-an-enhancement/ https://www.globalnerdy.com/2011/07/03/org-charts-of-the-big...
  - IggleSniggle 1y ago
    I've always loved this image set. I have a feeling it's very different in 2025 though; would love to hear what current or very recent employees at these companies think
  - teddyh 1y ago
    > TTC is the gaming version of Oracle in that one meme Link to the original artist instead of blogspam: <https://bonkersworld.net/organizational-charts https://bonkersworld.net/organizational-charts>
jwrallie 1y ago
That’s sad to hear about, I understand why they did it, but I’m sure everyone that cared will be hesitant to ever spend anything on their trademark.
kelseydh 1y ago
Cool that GitHub publishes every DMCA takedown notice they receive like this. Fascinating to go through them.

franze 1y ago

Thats why I never mention the T word once on my variation https://ihopethisisfun.franzai.com/ https://ihopethisisfun.franzai.com/

rplnt 1y ago
What they go after is not just the name, but the shapes. But I think you are fine as long as you do not monetize or get popular.
- GolDDranks 1y ago
  Which is crazy, because the shapes are just an idea, and you can't copyright ideas. They also couldn't be a trademark infringement (IANAL, though) if you don't use them in your branding.
  - johnisgood 1y ago
    Trying to copyright shapes or blocks of various shapes is wild to me.
    - rplnt 1y ago
      They don't claim copyright on the mechanics. They pursue trademark violation. If it has falling tetrominos, it might be confused with Tetris, is the idea. You can use different shapes and be fine.
  - nashashmi 1y ago
    It is the series of shapes in one project that makes it Tetris. So think of it as a series of copied ideas in one product that make it a legal challenge
  - selcuka 1y ago
    > you can't copyright ideas They can go after you for anything. Whether or not that would hold in court is a separate question, but they count on the fact that you would be probably unwilling to test it.
    - GolDDranks 1y ago
      Yes, legal trolling is unfortunately a thing.
- silveira 1y ago
  The shapes are called tetrominos, four squares connected orthogonally. Tetris the game, was created with pentominoes (5 squares) and scaled down to tetrominos. The game was inspired by physical puzzles where fill a rectangle with the shapes. So these shapes existed before Tetris. Would they go after the shapes? Possibly. See "Tetris Holding, LLC v. Xio Interactive, Inc.".
  - rplnt 1y ago
    One I remember is Blockles by OMGPop, which was a great multiplayer tetris-inspired game. There was legal threat, and they took it down in 2009.
- mNovak 1y ago
  I could imagine the specific combination where the shapes colors match the original could get into trademark territory, as the colors have no in-game requirement to be those specific values.
- akouzoukos 1y ago
  The name is the most important part, as it gives them a way to look for games that have their name but aren't theirs. But you're mostly right that they actually go after any game that has the same gameplay and is relatively popular, but only when they can easily issue a DMCA takedown. It's not like they ever said that this was their policy but you can see it bear out time and again. TETR.IO and Jstris are insanely popular games that have been up for years with no action against them since they aren't hosted on another platform/marketplace. This is also why Apotris got 2 DMCA takedowns on both Github and itch.io 3 months apart from each other, but after hosting the game on my own site, they haven't taken any further action in the past 2 years while it has continued to grow in popularity.

ddtaylor 1y ago

The Tetris mark as a whole has an amazing history. It's a mark that was created from the ashes of a state that didn't allow trade and was involved in conflict and is kind of a marvel at the amount of cooperation that needs to happen for something like this. It's basically all edge cases. Going after "clones" that have similar gameplay is wrong and they should (and likely do) know better. This has been resolved with Hasbro in the past as they were very litigious and went after clones of their games like Scrabble claiming their patent (and other parts) extended to the gameplay elements etc. IIRC the court rejected that argument and said that they can copyright or trademark the color combinations, names of points, etc. but they cannot patent the fundamental scrabble gameplay etc.

jsheard 1y ago
AIUI it's some weird legal sleight of hand where they don't (and can't) actually own the Tetris gameplay mechanics, but they have successfully argued in court that the appearance of the game constitutes their trade dress, and in practice you can't really implement the Tetris mechanics without the result looking like Tetris. TTC is the gaming version of Oracle in that one meme[1], 90% of their raison d'etre is just to scare people away from making Tetris clones or variants without their permission so they can keep collecting rent on it forever. [1] https://www.globalnerdy.com/2011/07/03/org-charts-of-the-big-tech-companies-plus-an-enhancement/ https://www.globalnerdy.com/2011/07/03/org-charts-of-the-big...
- IggleSniggle 1y ago
  I've always loved this image set. I have a feeling it's very different in 2025 though; would love to hear what current or very recent employees at these companies think
- teddyh 1y ago
  > TTC is the gaming version of Oracle in that one meme Link to the original artist instead of blogspam: <https://bonkersworld.net/organizational-charts https://bonkersworld.net/organizational-charts>

jwrallie 1y ago

That’s sad to hear about, I understand why they did it, but I’m sure everyone that cared will be hesitant to ever spend anything on their trademark.

kelseydh 1y ago

Cool that GitHub publishes every DMCA takedown notice they receive like this. Fascinating to go through them.