Atari take aim with a trade mark claim against Redbubble

Long established video game creators Atari have put their foot down and issued a trade mark and copyright infringement claim against an online retailer for selling counterfeit goods.

Creators of widely recognised games such as ‘Breakout’, ‘Pong’ and Asteroids’, Atari were founded in the 1970’s.

The claims centres on Redbubble’s website on which a user can upload a design or image and apply it to different items, such as t-shirts, hats and phone cases. These are then displayed on the Redbubble website, and if the product is bought, Redbubble splits the profits with the person who uploaded the design.

Atari alleged that through this practise Redbubble are “advertising, marketing, creating, displaying, offering for sale, selling, distributing, and profiting from massive quantities of counterfeit Atari products”.

This is due to Redbubble allowing the uploading display and sale of products which contain images in respect of Atari and games ‘Pong’, Centipede’. ‘Breakout’ and ‘Asteroids’.

Atari have based their claim on a portfolio of intellectual property.

Not only do own the trade mark in the US for ‘Atari’ and their logo, they have also registered ‘Pong’ as a trade mark.

In addition, they have registered the copyright in a number of their video game names, including ‘Centipede’, ‘Asteroids’, ‘Pong’ and ‘Breakout’. In the US copyright can be registered to enable the owner to confirm that they are the owner of such when enforcing their protection.

This is not all, as Atari also claim to have built extensive unregistered rights over four decades of trading.

Atari are seeking a permanent injunction against Redbubble and also an eye watering level of damages with a claim for no less than $150,000 per registered copyright and no less than $2 million per trade mark.

By Ellis Sweetenham