page_title: Atari Games Corp. v. Nintendo of America Inc.
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Atari Games Corp. v. Nintendo of America Inc. / Background
caption_attribution_description: An example of the Checking Integrated Circuit (CIC) 10NES lockout chip. This chip was required on games in order to play on an NES, so that unauthorized games would be locked out. This was done so Nintendo could prevent a flood of unauthorized software, while also requiring game publishers to purchase their cartridges through Nintendo.
context_page_description: Atari Games Corp. v. Nintendo of America Inc., 975 F.2d 832, is a United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit case, in which the court held that Atari Games engaged in copyright infringement by copying Nintendo's lock-out system, the 10NES. The 10NES was designed to prevent Nintendo's video game console, the Nintendo Entertainment System, from accepting unauthorized game cartridges. Atari, after unsuccessful attempts to reverse engineer the lock-out system, obtained an unauthorized copy of the source code from the Copyright Office and used it to create its 10NES replica, the Rabbit. The case involved copyright infringement claims by Nintendo and a defense based on fair use and copyright misuse by Atari.
  The Federal Circuit declared that Nintendo was likely to prove that Atari made unauthorized verbatim copies of the 10NES program and affirmed the imposition of a preliminary injunction by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, preventing Atari from exploiting Nintendo's copyrighted code.
context_section_description: Nintendo designed the 10NES lock-out system to prevent unauthorized games from running on its video game console, the NES. Both the console and authorized game cartridges contained a microchip that contained the 10NES program, and the communication between the two controlled access to the NES.  In 1986, Atari began their attempts to reverse engineer the 10NES, which included monitoring communications between the console and cartridges chips, chemically peeling layers from the chip, and microscopically examining the code embodied in the chip's silicon.  However, Atari was unable to sufficiently decipher its operation and thus failed to break the lock-out system.
  In December 1987, Atari became a licensee of Nintendo and gained the rights to make video games for the NES. The license terms strictly controlled Atari's access to the console technology. To sell a video game, Atari was required to give the game to Nintendo, and Nintendo would place the game on cartridges equipped with 10NES and resell them to Atari. The license also contained an exclusivity term that prohibited licensees from creating adaptations of such games for other consoles for a period of two years following the first sale.
  In 1988, Atari obtained the source code for the 10NES from the Copyright Office, by falsely alleging that a copy of the code was needed in a copyright infringement action. Atari used this copy to develop its own replica of the 10NES, the Rabbit, which generated signals functionally indistinguishable from the 10NES. As Atari gained access to NES owners without Nintendo's licensing conditions, Nintendo sought a motion to enjoin Atari's alleged infringement of its copyright, which was granted by the District Court. Atari then asserted copyright misuse to defend against copyright infringement claims.
caption: 10NES chip from a NES game cartridge
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