Atari Games Corp. v. Nintendo of America Inc.

• Decision Date: 10 September 1992
• Citation: 975 F.2d 832,24 USPQ2d 1015
• Parties: , 1992-2 Trade Cases P 69,969, 1992 Copr.L.Dec. P 26,978, 24 U.S.P.Q.2d 1015 ATARI GAMES CORP. and Tengen, Inc., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. NINTENDO OF AMERICA INC. and Nintendo Co., Ltd., Defendants-Appellees. 91-1293.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Federal Circuit

Page 832

975 F.2d 832

61 USLW 2203, 1992-2 Trade Cases P 69,969,

1992 Copr.L.Dec. P 26,978, 24 U.S.P.Q.2d 1015

ATARI GAMES CORP. and Tengen, Inc., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. NINTENDO OF AMERICA INC. and Nintendo Co., Ltd., Defendants-Appellees.

91-1293.

United States Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit.

Sept. 10, 1992.

Rehearing Denied; Suggestion for

Rehearing In Banc Declined

Nov. 17, 1992.

M. Laurence Popofsky, Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe, San Francisco, Cal., argued, for plaintiffs-appellants. With him on the brief were Robert S. Venning, Peter A. Wald, Kirk G. Werner, Robert B. Hawk, Michael K. Plimack and Dale A. Rice. Also on the brief were James B. Bear, Knobbe, Martens, Olson & Bear, of Newport Beach, Cal., and G. Gervaise Davis, II, Schroeder, Davis & Orliss, Inc., Monterey, Cal.

Thomas G. Gallatin, Jr., Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, Alexander & Ferdon, New York City, argued, for defendants-appellees. With him on the brief was John J. Kirby, Jr. Also on the brief was Larry S. Nixon, Nixon & Vanderhye, P.C., of Arlington, Va.

Before CLEVENGER, Circuit Judge, SMITH, Senior Circuit Judge, and RADER, Circuit Judge.

RADER, Circuit Judge.

Nintendo of America Inc., and Nintendo Co., Ltd. sell the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Two of Nintendo's competitors, Atari Games Corporation and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Tengen, Inc., sued Nintendo for, among other things, unfair competition, Sherman Act violations, and patent infringement. Nintendo sued Atari for, among other things, unfair competition, patent infringement, copyright infringement, and trade secret violations. The United States District Court for the Northern District of California consolidated the two cases and preliminarily enjoined Atari from exploiting Nintendo's copyrighted computer program. Because Nintendo has shown a likelihood of success on its copyright infringement claims, this court affirms.

BACKGROUND

Nintendo's home video game system--the NES--includes a monitor, console, and controls. The console is a base unit into which a user inserts game cartridges. These cartridges contain the various game programs for the NES. As dictated by the program on the cartridge, the console controls an image on a video monitor, often a television set. In response to this video display, the user interacts with the system by manipulating the controls. Thus, by operating the controls in response to the video image, an individual plays the game on the cartridge in the NES console.

For instance, the game program may control a maze or set of obstacles on the video display. The user then manipulates the controls to guide an object through the maze or set of obstacles. The game program Nintendo designed a program--the 10NES--to prevent the NES from accepting unauthorized game cartridges. Both the NES console and authorized game cartridges contain microprocessors or chips programed with the 10NES. The console contains a "master chip" or "lock." Authorized game cartridges contain a "slave chip" or "key." When a user inserts an authorized cartridge into a console, the slave chip in effect unlocks the console; the console detects a coded message and accepts the game cartridge. When a user inserts an unauthorized cartridge, the console detects no unlocking message and refuses to operate the cartridge. Nintendo's 10NES program thus controls access to the NES.

then awards the user points for proficiently passing through the maze or obstacles.

Atari first attempted to analyze and replicate the NES security system in 1986. Atari could not break the 10NES program code by monitoring the communication between the master and slave chips. Atari next tried to break the code by analyzing the chips themselves. Atari analysts chemically peeled layers from the NES chips to allow microscopic examination of the object code. ¹ Nonetheless, Atari still could not decipher the code sufficiently to replicate the NES security system.

In December 1987, Atari became a Nintendo licensee. Atari paid Nintendo to gain access to the NES for its video games. The license terms, however, strictly controlled Atari's access to Nintendo's technology, including the 10NES program. Under the license, Nintendo would take Atari's games, place them in cartridges containing the 10NES program, and resell them to Atari. Atari could then market the games to NES owners. Nintendo limited all licensees, including Atari, to five new NES games per year. The Nintendo license also prohibited Atari from licensing NES games to other home video game systems for two years from Atari's first sale of the game.

In early 1988, Atari's attorney applied to the Copyright Office for a reproduction of the 10NES program. The application stated that Atari was a defendant in an infringement action and needed a copy of the program for that litigation. Atari falsely alleged that it was a present defendant in a case in the Northern District of California. Atari assured the "Library of Congress that the requested copy [would] be used only in connection with the specified litigation." In fact, no suit existed between the parties until December 1988, when Atari sued Nintendo for antitrust violations and unfair competition. Nintendo filed no infringement action against Atari until November 1989.

After obtaining the 10NES source code from the Copyright Office, Atari again tried to read the object code from peeled chips. Through microscopic examination, Atari's analysts transcribed the 10NES object code into a handwritten representation of zeros and ones. Atari used the information from the Copyright Office to correct errors in this transcription. The Copyright Office copy facilitated Atari's replication of the 10NES object code.

After deciphering the 10NES program, Atari developed its own program--the Rabbit program--to unlock the NES. Atari's Rabbit program generates signals indistinguishable from the 10NES program. The Rabbit uses a different microprocessor. The Rabbit chip, for instance, operates faster. Thus, to generate signals recognizable by the 10NES master chip, the Rabbit program must include pauses. Atari also programmed the Rabbit in a different language. Because Atari chose a different microprocessor and programming language, the line-by-line instructions of the 10NES and Rabbit programs vary. Nonetheless, as the district court found, the Nintendo asked the district court to enjoin Atari's alleged infringement of its 10NES copyright. Atari sought in a separate motion to enjoin Nintendo's alleged antitrust violations and alleged misuse of its property rights. Nintendo prevailed on both motions. Atari appealed both rulings but subsequently moved to dismiss its appeal from the denial of its motion for a preliminary injunction. This court granted that motion. Atari asserts copyright misuse as a defense to copyright infringement.

                Rabbit program generates signals functionally indistinguishable from the 10NES program.   The Rabbit gave Atari access to NES owners without Nintendo's strict license conditions
                

ANALYSIS

Because this action includes patent infringement claims, this court has jurisdiction over this appeal. 28 U.S.C. §§ 1292, 1295, 1338 (1988). To resolve issues of copyright law, this court applies the law as interpreted by the regional circuits, in this case, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Atari Games v. Nintendo of Am., 897 F.2d 1572, 1575 (Fed.Cir.1990); Cicena Ltd. v. Columbia Telecommunications Group, 900 F.2d 1546 (Fed.Cir.1990).

The Ninth Circuit sustains preliminary injunctions if the movant shows "either a likelihood of success on the merits and the possibility of irreparable injury, or that serious questions going to the merits were raised and the balance of hardships tips sharply in its favor." Johnson Controls v. Phoenix Control Sys., 886 F.2d 1173, 1174 (9th Cir.1989); accord Ocean Garden v. Marktrade Co., 953 F.2d 500, 506 (9th Cir.1991). In a claim for copyright infringement, "a showing of a reasonable likelihood of success on the merits raises a presumption of irreparable harm." Johnson Controls, 886 F.2d at 1174.

The Ninth Circuit vacates a preliminary injunction "only if the district court abused its discretion, or based its decision on an erroneous legal standard or clearly erroneous findings of fact." Id.; accord Ocean Garden, 953 F.2d at 502; Associated Gen. Contractors of Cal. v. Coalition for Economic Equity, 950 F.2d 1401, 1405 (9th Cir.1991), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 1670, 118 L.Ed.2d 390 (1992). The Ninth Circuit reviews "de novo the correctness of the legal standards employed by the district court in evaluating the plaintiff's likelihood of success on the merits." Associated Gen. Contractors, 950 F.2d at 1405.

Thus, following Ninth Circuit caselaw, this court must determine whether Nintendo has shown a likelihood of success on its prima facie case of copyright infringement and a likelihood that it will overcome Atari's copyright misuse defense. See H.H. Robertson, Co. v. United Steel Deck, 820 F.2d 384, 388-89 (Fed.Cir.1987) (entitlement to preliminary injunction "is determined in the context of presumptions and burdens that inhere at trial on the merits"); Gutierrez v. Municipal Court of the Southeast Judicial District, County of Los Angeles, 838 F.2d 1031, 1038-45 (9th Cir.1988); Half Moon Bay Fishermans' Marketing v. Carlucci, 857 F.2d 505, 507-12 (9th Cir.1988); Hale v. Department of Energy, 806 F.2d 910, 915-18 (9th Cir.1986).

Copyright Infringement

To prevail on its copyright infringement claim, Nintendo must show ownership of the 10NES program copyright and copying by Atari of protectable expression from the 10NES program. Feist Publications v. Rural Tel. Serv. Co., --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 1282, 1296, 113 L.Ed.2d 358 (1991); Brown Bag Software v. Symantec Corp., 960 F.2d 1465, 1472 (9th Cir.1992); Johnson Controls, 886 F.2d at 1175. The parties do not dispute that Nintendo owns the 10NES copyright. Therefore, Nintendo...