Patents & Copyrights

Watch the 10 minute video: Mine_Gaming_and_Copyright and fill in the notes below in OneNote class notes about legal issues with video games.

1. Why was it crazy that Ralph Baer was trying to patent the idea of a video game? 
2. If his patent had gone through, how would it affect anyone who would want to create a video game?
3. Legal Battle: Pac-Man vs. K.C. Munchkin! – Atari vs. Phillips Which side won and why was it unfair?
4. Legal Battle: Karate Champ vs. World Karate Championship -  Data East vs. Epyx What was the outcome in this case and how was it significant for future innovation to occur among similar games within a genre? 
5. When any new idea comes out and is successful, it establishes a genre, and then a lot of other people want to hop on it.  Think of a recent or current new genre or idea that supports this claim.  For example, the iPhone started a trend towards touch screen cell phones.
6. Describe the legal conflict in the Midway vs. Artic legal battle. 
   • What does it mean to follow the letter of the law, but not the spirit of the law?
   • How did the ruling affect the future profitability of the video game industry?
7. Artic lost another legal battle when it made a speed-up board for the game Galaxian, because it used some of Galaxian's source code.  Why then did the Game Genie not lose when it was sued by Nintendo?
8. How did the legal battles that the video game industry endured help pave the way for laws governing the Internet?
9. When the Internet first came out, it had a similar legal experience in which there were many legal battles over ownership, but it was a lot shorter and less chaotic than for video games.  Why?

After the video:

1. Pick your favorite 2 unusual inventions that made millions of dollars. (don't pick the first 2, look through at least a few or choose from this list of unusual, patented inventions)
   

   Invention	What is unusual about it?	Do you think it deserves a patent? Why or why not?

2. Use the quick patent search to find at least 4 patents with the word "watch" in the title.
   

   What is the patent for?	Patent #	Inventor(s)	Date filed	Is it innovative? Why or why not?