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Atari vs. Nintendo court transcripts
M2249  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Preferred Citation
  • Conditions Governing Use
  • Conditions Governing Access
  • Immediate Source of Acquisition
  • Scope and Contents
  • Biographical / Historical

  • Language of Material: English
    Contributing Institution: Department of Special Collections and University Archives
    Title: Atari vs. Nintendo court transcripts
    source: Lehrberg, Richard S.F., 1947-2015
    Identifier/Call Number: M2249
    Physical Description: 3 Linear Feet : 6 boxes
    Date (inclusive): 1992
    Abstract: Volumes of court transcripts from a 1992 suit between Nintendo and Atari.

    Preferred Citation

    [identification of item], Atari vs. Nintendo court transcripts (M2249). Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California.

    Conditions Governing Use

    While Special Collections is the owner of the physical items, permission to examine collection materials is not an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns.

    Conditions Governing Access

    Open for research. Note that material must be requested at least 36 hours in advance of intended use.

    Immediate Source of Acquisition

    Gift of Cathie Lehrberg. 2017. Accession MSS 2017-216.

    Scope and Contents

    Vol. 3 Misako Sack (Translator, discussing semantics of following deposition) - Direct Examination Hiroshi Yamauchi (President of Nintendo Company, Ltd.) - Direct Examination (by deposition) Howard Lincoln (Senior Vice President of Nintendo of America) - Direct Examination Vol. 4 Howard Lincoln - Direct examination, continued Vol. 6 Howard Lincoln - Cross examination, continued - Redirect examination - Recross examination Minoru Arakawa (President of Nintendo of America) - Direct examination Vol. 7 Minoru Arakawa - Cross examination - Redirect examination Jack Tramiel (Founder and CEO of Atari Corp.) - Direct examination
    Vol. 8 Jack Tramiel: - Direct examination, continued - Cross examination - Redirect examination Michael Katz (at one point president of Tramiel’s Atari Corp.) - Direct examination Vol. 9 Michael Katz: - Direct examination, continued - Cross examination Vol. 10 Michael Katz: - Cross examination, continued Vol. 11 Michael Katz: - Cross examination, continued - Redirect examination Lawrence Siegel (President of Entertainment Division of Atari Corp., Vice President of Software Development) - Direct examination
    Vol. 13 Lawrence Siegel - Direct examination, continued - Cross examination Vol. 14 Lawrence Siegel - Cross Examination, continued - Redirect examination
    Vol 15 Lawrence Siegel - Redirect examination, continued - Recross examination John Skruch (Atari Corp. Director of Software Development) - Direct examination - Cross examination Vol 16 John Skruch - Cross examination, continued - Redirect examination - Recross examination Sam Tramiel (President and CEO of Atari Corp., Jack Tramiel’s son) - Direct examination
    Vol 17 Sam Tramiel - Direct examination, continued - Cross examination Vol 18 Sam Tramiel - Cross examination, continued Vol. 19 Sam Tramiel - Cross examination, continued - Redirect examination - Recross examination
    Vol 20 Joseph Robbins (President of Sun Corporation of America, licensee of Nintendo) - Direct examination - Cross examination Vol 21 Douglas Carlston (Chairman and CEO of Broderbund Software) - Direct examination - Cross examination - Redirect examination - Recross examination Gregory Fischbach (Co-Chairman and CEO of Acclaim Entertainment) - (Direct examination?) - Cross examination
    Vol. 22 Gregory Fischbach (Co-Chairman and CEO of Acclaim Entertainment) - Redirect examination William “Trip” Hawkins (Chairman of Electronic Arts and President of SMSG, Inc. ) - Direct examination - Cross examination Vol. 23 William “Trip” Hawkins - Cross examination, continued - Redirect examination - Recross examination Joseph Morici (Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Capcom USA) - Direct examination - Cross examination
    Vol. 24 Joseph Morici - Cross examination, continued - Redirect examination - Recross examination Peter Main (Vice President of Marketing at Nintendo) - Direct examination Vol 25 Peter Main - Direct examination, continued - Cross examination - Redirect examination
    Vol 26 Peter Main - Redirect examination, continued - Recross Examination James Levy (Co-founder of Activision, chairman and chief executive of Park Lane Group) - Direct examination - Voir dire (judge ultimately decided witness could not be assumed to be an expert in the matters at hand, and permitted him to be a witness, but not a knowledge expert. - Direct examination, resumed - Cross examination Vol. 27 James Levy - Cross examination, continued - Redirect examination - Recross examination Paul Jacobs (President of SNK Corporation of America) - Direct examination - Cross examination Vol. 28 Paul Jacobs - Cross examination, continued - Redirect examination Donald James (Director of Product Analysis and Development for Nintendo of America) - Direct examination (via deposition) Tadayoshi Kawamura (General Manager of the Productions Administration Department at the Oogi (sic) Factory of the Production Division) - Direct examination (via deposition) Eizo Takeyama (Plant Manager of Nintendo’s Oggi Ogura (sic) Factory and General Manager of the General Affairs Department) - Direct examination (via deposition) Thomas Randlett (CPA, tapped by Atari as expert testimony) - Direct examination - Cross examination - Redirect examination Byron Cook (President, Chief Operating Officer of Tradewest) - Direct (via deposition) - Cross (via deposition) Hiroshi Imanishi (General manager of the General Affairs Department of the Administration Division) - Direct examination (via deposition) - Cross examination (via deposition) Howard Phillips II (Creative Director, LucasFilm Games) - Direct examination (via deposition) Richard Lehrberg (Employee of Interplay, tapped by Nintendo as expert) - Direct examination - Cross examination - Redirect Terrance Valeski (Creator of Intellivision, Incorporated.) - Direct examination (via deposition) - Cross examination(via deposition) - Redirect examination (via deposition) - Recross examination (via deposition) Howard Reubin (President of Jaleco, USA) - Direct examination (via deposition) - Cross examination (via deposition) - Redirect examination (via deposition)
    Vol. 42 Plaintiff’s Closing Argument Defendant’s Closing Argument Plaintiff’s Rebuttal Argument

    Biographical / Historical

    The collection contains selected transcripts from Atari Corporation vs. Nintendo of America, Inc.(N.D. Cal. filed Jan. 30, 1989) (No. C-89-0824-FMS), one of several important suits between the two video game manufacturers. These transcripts belonged to Richard Lehrberg (1947-2015), an expert witness in the suit. Lehrberg had been a game buyer for Sears in the early 1980s who then worked at Activision before forming his own company, Lehrberg Associates, an international software licensing company in 1989.
    In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was explosively popular. Nintendo wielded a great deal of authority as a result, and used this to micromanage third-party developers. Among other stipulations, any licensee could not release the game for any other system for two years, and had to use Nintendo’s own cartridges rather than obtaining their own. Nintendo enforced this process by making the NES only work with Nintendo-manufactured cartridges, which had a proprietary 10NES chip that served as the “key.”
    Atari Games found a way around this obstacle, as they obtained a copy of the 10NES patent application under false pretenses and copied the chip. Atari’s imprint Tengen Games was created for the purpose of using non-Nintendo cartridges, and non-Nintendo-approved games began to appear on the market. As this was taking place, an international chip shortage was creating bottlenecks for licensees reliant on the Nintendo cartridge. Atari sued Nintendo, citing antitrust violations and claiming that Nintendo intentionally orchestrated the chip shortage. Nintendo countersued; Atari had actually become a licensee of Nintendo the previous year. Atari’s argument hinged in part on the claim that the 10NES patent wasn’t meaningful as Atari had already reverse-engineered the code. This claim was clearly shown to be false when Atari’s “rabbit chip” was revealed to have imitated a slightly outdated version of the 10NES chip. This older version included inefficient code later improved by Nintendo, which then showed up in Atari’s code as well. The court initially ruled in Nintendo’s favor. Atari was ordered to immediately stop making and selling their self-produced cartridges, and shut down Tengen. Atari appealed on the basis of the layoffs this would entail, and the verdict was withheld.
    Several months later, in the US Court of Appeals, Atari defended reverse engineering as fair use, and claimed Nintendo was committing copyright abuse. The claim about copyright abuse was dismissed, but the court agreed regarding the fair use assertion. The court upheld the original ruling, however, in the context of Atari stealing the 10NES code, dealing a massive blow to Atari.
    This case resulted in governmental concern with Nintendo and antitrust regulations, which would lead Nintendo to give up certain stipulations such as console exclusivity. This then allowed developers to release games for multiple systems at the same time- which, in the nineties, often ended up being the SNES and the Sega Genesis. Even though Atari lost, the case did result in alternatives to Nintendo becoming more viable.

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Computer games -- History.
    Video game design
    Computer games industry
    Atari, Inc.
    Nintendo of America Inc.
    Lehrberg, Richard S.F., 1947-2015