Atari v. Amusement World
Atari, Inc. v. Amusement World, Inc., 547 F.Supp. 222 (D. Md. Nov. 27, 1981) is a legal case in which the United States District Court for the District of Maryland held that Amusement World's arcade game Meteors did not violate Atari's copyright in their game Asteroids.
| Atari v. Amusement World | |
|---|---|
| Court | United States District Court for the District of Maryland |
| Full case name | Atari, Inc. v. Amusement World, Inc. |
| Decided | November 27, 1981 |
| Citation(s) | 547 F. Supp. 222 (D. Md. 1981) |
| Court membership | |
| Judge(s) sitting | Joseph H. Young |
Judge Joseph H. Young accepted that Atari had valid copyright protection in their game's symbols, movements, and sounds, but concluded that Amusement World's game did not infringe on any of these protected elements. Although Amusement World admitted that they appropriated Atari's idea, the court determined that this wasn't prohibited, because copyright only protects the specific expression of an idea, not the idea itself.
This became one of the earliest legal rulings about copyright in video games, and one of the first cases to rule in favor of the defendant based on the idea-expression distinction that copyright does not protect broad ideas, only the unique expression an idea.