Farewell, Pong
In about 24 hours, I’ll be removing my first iOS app, Pong - iPhone Edition, from the App Store. About a month ago I received a cease and desist letter from Atari Interactive (through Apple Legal) and since, I’ve been emailing and calling Atari Legal so much without any response it seems as if I’m talking to myself.
About a week ago, I got an email from Apple Legal saying that Atari Legal contacted them saying the issue had not yet been resolved (which was true) and that I need to talk to Atari Legal about a compromise or agreement, which I couldn’t do until I got a valid response from someone. Shortly after getting that message, I sent a nice, professional email to the lawyers at Atari accusing me of copyright and trademark infringement. To no surprise, I’ve failed to receive a response from them, until today.
We also want to note that the infringer’s own email of March 2, 2011, shows that he intended to violate Atari’s intellectual property rights. “I was wondering if a brand change could fix the problems that are faced, or any licensing fees can be taken care of”.
I mean, seriously? Who in their right mind would intend to violate a trademark or copyright? I was twelve years old when I made this game, and I had absolutely no knowledge of the legal system.
I had two choices. 1) battle it out, see what happens, likely end up being sued, or 2) remove the app from iTunes. And trust me, I’m the kind of guy that would go for option 1, I don’t want to go down without a fight, but this is just too big.
The one thing that doesn’t sit well with me is that a simple search of ‘pong’ on the App Store brings up hundreds of results, and I was targeted. I just recently got off the phone with Atari’s legal department and I was targeted because it resembles Atari’s Pong app (coming soon, I guess) which isn’t even on the App Store yet.
To avoid going to court with Atari, I’ve decided to remove Pong - iPhone Edition in 24 hours, so please, download it while you can (you can download it by clicking on any of the screenshots). Thank you.
