The Tetris Company
| Type | Limited liability company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Interactive entertainment |
| Founder(s) | |
| Headquarters | Honolulu, Hawaii, USA |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Services | Licensor of the Tetris brand |
| Owner(s) | Tetris Holding, LLC |
| Website | www.tetris.com |
The Tetris Company, LLC (TTC) is based in Hawaii and is owned by Henk Rogers and Alexey Pajitnov.[1] The company currently owns the trademark to the game Tetris, originally conceived by Pajitnov. Tetris is widely considered one of the most popular games ever released, which is reflected by its mobile edition being the top seller in the industry.[2] The company licenses the Tetris trademark to video game development companies and maintains a set of guidelines that each licensed game must meet.[3]
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[edit] ELORG
ELORG was the Soviet agency, and later, privatized Russian company created to license Tetris to the west. Initially, ELORG was a partner in the company, until Rogers and Pajitnov bought ELORGs remaining rights.[4] The Tetris Company now has sole ownership of the Tetris mark.
[edit] Legal enforcement
TTC drew attention in the late 90s when it attempted to remove freeware and shareware versions of Tetris from the market by sending out cease-and-desist letters claiming both trademark and copyright infringement.[5] Creators of Tetris clones determined that the company has no valid legal basis to claim rights to any tetromino game that does not infringe on the Tetris name trademark, since copyright "look-and-feel" suits have not stood up in court in the past (Lotus v. Borland), and because the letters made no patent claims.[6]
In August 2008, Apple Inc. removed Tris, a version of Tetris from its online App Store. The software author had written a tetromino game for the iPhone OS without any authorization from The Tetris Company.[7] In March 2009, The Tetris Company sued BioSocia, operator of the Omgpop gaming portal.[8][dead link][9] because one of its multiplayer games, Blockles, was too similar to tetris. By September 2009, Omgpop removed the game from the website and replaced it with an alternate that the developers created, based on Puyo Puyo.
In May 2010, lawyers representing The Tetris Company sent Google a Digital Millennium Copyright Act Violation Notice regarding Tetris clones available for Android.[10] Google responded by removing the 35 games listed in the notice, even though, according to one developer, the game contained no references to Tetris.[11][12][13]
In February 2011, The Tetris Company continued to make copyright claims against independently developed Tetris clones, most notably against Tetrada on the Windows Phone 7 marketplace. The developer, Mario Karagiannis, rejected the claims of copyright infringement on the grounds that copyright does not cover gameplay design, but still removed the game, citing lack of resources to fight what he called "bullying".[14][15]
[edit] References
- ^ "Tetris: a history". http://www.atarihq.com/tsr/special/tetrishist.html. Retrieved 2011-02-17.
- ^ Tetris tops the mobile charts once again gamesindustry.biz 30 August 2006
- ^ Tetris from the Top
- ^ Hartley, Matt (2009-06-06). "Rock around the blocks - The Globe and Mail". Toronto. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/rock-around-the-blocks/article1171379/page2/. Retrieved 2011-02-17.
- ^ Andrew James Bednarz, December 24th 1997 The Tetris Company Story
- ^ Bjorn Stenberg A trademark cease-and-desist for Rockbox's Tetrox: Tetrox renamed to Rockblox, for trademark reasons. September 19, 2006. Retrieved on September 5, 2009.
- ^ iPhone Tetris Clone 'Tris' Pulled From App Store on Kotaku
- ^ Ross Dannenberg. Patent Arcade: New Case: Tetris Co. v. BioSocia, Inc. (S.D.N.Y) [Copyright] Retrieved on September 5, 2009.
- ^ Information about Tetris vs. Biosocia Inc. Retrieved on December 28, 2009.
- ^ DMCA Notice sent to Google Retrieved May 28, 2010.
- ^ "Google pulls Tetris from Android - Tetris, blocked TechEye". http://www.techeye.net/software/google-pulls-tetris. Retrieved 2011-02-18.
- ^ "Google's Android Market Purges Tetris Clones | News & Opinion | PCMag.com". http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2364311,00.asp. Retrieved 2011-02-18.
- ^ "Tetris Clones Yanked Off Market". http://www.droidgamers.com/index.php/game-news/android-game-news/320-tetris-clones-yanked-off-market. Retrieved 2011-02-18.
- ^ "The Tetris Company forces Tetrada out of WP7 Marketplace - News - Know Your Mobile". http://www.knowyourmobile.com/mobile-games/mobilegamesnews/763257/the_tetris_company_forces_tetrada_out_of_wp7_marketplace.html. Retrieved 2011-02-09.
- ^ "Tetris clone Tetrada removed from Windows Phone 7 Marketplace after takedown request | Tetris news | Pocket Gamer". http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/Windows+Phone+7/Tetris/news.asp?c=27319. Retrieved 2011-02-09.
[edit] External links
- The Tetris Company, LLC.
- Blue Planet Software, 50 percent owner and the representative of The Tetris Company
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