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Tetris Company sues VC-funded OMGPOP
Interesting story about IP in video games. I remember there was a discussion here and on gamedev I believe especially about tetris - how you could make a game and just call it something else than tris in the name and you'd be ok. Apparently not, even though OMGPOPs version from the screenshots looks like a blatant ripoff.
- keltecp11 18y agoOMGPOP should back down from this one...
- trickjarrett 18y agoIndeed. The Tetris company has always protected their game avidly and they have a string of successes a mile long as game maker after game maker have tried to get their own clone out there.
- moe 18y agoAnyone else find this disturbing? Tetris has without a doubt been a huge leap for the puzzle-genre. But that was 24 years ago. Should ID software be allowed to sue all other 3d shooter makers because they build on the Wolfenstein idea? And how do you determine a clone, where do you draw the line? Is Dr.Mario a clone? What about the zillions of Bust-A-Move and Jewels variants (basically tetris in reverse)?
- zitterbewegung 18y agoI thought this would happen. They changed some of the pieces and such but a great deal of the games on omgpop are obvious copies of the original games like bomberman. I bet they will be sued over other games also.
- jrockway 18y agoSued, but will they lose? It's not illegal to clone products. Consider OO.org and Office, bash and cmd.exe, etc., etc. Same ideas, totally different implementation. If we start calling ideas "trade dress", there will basically be no legal way to ever make anything again. Additionally, the claims from the Tetris Company are very vague. "Geometric playing pieces formed by four equally-sized, delineated blocks." If other industries allowed this, we'd have nothing today. Imagine Dell suing IBM because IBM made a "portable computer with a screen attached to the keyboard by a hinge". Just because you can come up with words to describe something you've made doesn't mean you have the exclusive right to make that thing forever. (I could come up with an example like this for nearly every real-life object I own, and every piece of software I use.)
- moe 18y agoI could come up with an example like this for nearly every real-life object I own, and every piece of software I use. Same train of thought here. Most of their criteria could be applied to almost any 2d puzzle game in existence.
- whughes 18y agoMost falling-block 2D puzzle games in existence copied Tetris anyway.. I suppose they're only bothering to go after the easy targets or the lucrative ones.
- zitterbewegung 18y agoTetris has a long record of winning court cases about tetris.
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- Keyframe 18y agook, I'm not sure why text is not showing up below link I've posted so here is copy paste: Interesting story about IP in video games. I remember there was a discussion here and on gamedev I believe especially about tetris - how you could make a game and just call it something else than tris in the name and you'd be ok. Apparently not, even though OMGPOPs version from the screenshots looks like a blatant ripoff.
- icey 18y agoYou can either submit a link, or you can submit text. If you put both in the submission, only the link will go through.
- Keyframe 18y agoThanks, I didn't know that, seems an odd choice though.
- jrockway 18y agoIf you want to editorialize, get your own blog. Or, post a comment like everyone else. Edit: I don't mean to sound condescending, I am just explaining the reasoning behind either link or text, but not both.
- unalone 18y agoI think the problem is that it sounds like you're talking not about the submission, but about his comment saying it's weird.
- bobbyi 18y agoFrom those screenshots, it looks like Tetris has a pretty strong case here.
- jwilliams 18y agoThe history of Tetris and Tetris copyright is an interesting one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris It was developed in the USSR and spread to the West, so the legal implications have always been a little bit muddy...
- Keyframe 18y agoanyone itnerested in this story should read "Game Over" - http://www.amazon.com/Game-Over-Nintendo-American-Industry/dp/0679404694/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237589029&sr=8-2 http://www.amazon.com/Game-Over-Nintendo-American-Industry/d... I got it as a gift with some magazine years ago (and lost it in the mean time) - but basically it tells the story about nintendo from the startup to the N64 era - quite many pages are related to tetris and negotiations with the Soviet Union.