Atari Targets Retro Community With Cease & Desist

svenski writes "Atari User reports that Atari Inc. have begun to target the retro community and have now turned their attentions to atari2600.org, a website first registered in 2000, demanding the domain name be handed over."

Comments

Re:Why?

[spazdor]

Because some quasi-develepor exec probably sold them on the idea that their decades-old intellectual property could become sellable again on the mobile/embedded platform market but first they need to kill off the community that formed around these games?

Re:Is this what it has come down to?

[SomePgmr]

I'm not sure abusively litigious behavior is tied to failure. Apple, for example.

"Estoppel Defense"

[lkcl]

i've just written this to the blog-writer: Please use the "Estoppel" Legal Defense. There's no way that Atari have not known of the existence for 12 years of the atari2600.org domain name.

The "Estoppel" defense states that if you ignore something, it is tantamount to "acquiescence" - i.e. "silent consent".

thus it can be claimed that Atari has "Silently Consented" to the use of this domain name, by virtue of them not having done anything for well over a decade.

Re:Is this what it has come down to?

[hedwards]

Patent trolls don't generally have a competing product. The amount of money that Apple stands to gain by having a competitor locked out of the market is likely to be a lot more than what they can reasonably collect if they win a later patent case.

But more importantly, it keeps competitors out of the minds of possible consumers.

Re:Why?

[Captain Splendid]

You know what's even better? Playing Pong with then fucking that chick I pulled at the bar.

Then, if she likes zombie movies, some co-op L4D2.

You got limited vision, my man.

Re:Why?

[Hatta]

That's the crazy thing. Infogrames took the Atari name, presumably to capitalize on people's good memories. Now they are attacking the very people trying the hardest to keep those memories alive. This makes no business sense whatsoever.