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Atari versus Haunted House Tycoon


fdr4prez

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It's really sad that the term 'Haunted House' is attempting to be exclusively trademarked to The Company Formerly Known As Infogrames.

 

Seriously, The Company Formerly Known As Infogrames needs to take a chill pill!

 

And the fact they couldn't even use an actual screenshot from the game, but a hack? Come on!

Edited by LarcenTyler
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There's nothing unusual about a company protecting the name of a successful product. Atari's Haunted House is an important piece of our pop culture period. The product is still for sale in one form or another including Toys R Us stores all across the U.S. and Canada.

 

A similar thing happened to Sierra Online and their "Hero's Quest" game. They had to rename that title after Milton Bradley insisted they get rid of it and if anyone has the Hero's Quest box, it's a pretty good collectible to have. Has anyone played the "Hero's Quest" board game here or remember it?!

 

The WWF had to share their name with an animal organization until they just eventually gave up on it and became the WWE. Many of us would argue that the WWF was more famous for wrestling than animals.

 

Don't get upset at Atari for protecting one of their trademarks. Most of us have fond memories of that game and honestly, who here actually believes that this "Haunted House Tycoon" could be bigger than the Atari original anyway. Imagine if Disney had named the movie "The Haunted House" instead of the "Haunted Mansion" and Atari would've forced them to pay some type of fee for it like the WWF had to pay Marvel all those years for using The Incredible Hulk.

 

Even better, Atari should've just went after game companies for using titles like "Bowling", "Football" and the phrase "Homerun" (like Paris Hilton tried to trademark, "That's Hot!"). Just kidding!

 

Seriously though, Atari better protect "Yar's Revenge." Someday someone is going to come up with some title Yar's related and we'll all know who really originated and own that title, idea and game.

 

10 employees or whatever, I hope they keep fighting on till the bitter end. Get that game renamed. Atari's Haunted House is the real deal and a game that has a place in pop culture history.

 

Long live Atari!

Edited by TheGreatPW
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A similar thing happened to Sierra Online and their "Hero's Quest" game. They had to rename that title after Milton Bradley insisted they get rid of it and if anyone has the Hero's Quest box, it's a pretty good collectible to have. Has anyone played the "Hero's Quest" board game here or remember it?!

 

 

Yep. It's one of the best regarded dungeon crawler boardgames ever, swapping the number one of all time spot with Warhammer Quest (its arguable successor) depending on the day of the week.

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This is what happens when you let people like this get away with shit like this. They know they will win the lawsuit, because nobody will bother to fight. Same that the BBC did with the words "Top" and "Gear".

 

Looks like all those [censored for copyright] attractions will apply under that copyright trademark too. They will have to call it "spooky dwelling".

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Note that trademarks are only enforceable/applicable within the same industry or product category.

 

For example, here in Canada, MacAvity is the name of a commercial bakery and an industrial plumbing supplies company. Both happily co-exist, catering to completely different markets.

 

So, one could (at least here in Canada) use the term "Haunted House" in a non-gaming context. Atari may threaten a lawsuit, but to succeed, they must establish that there is confusion in the mind of the consumer.

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Sierra Online's Hero's Quest: So You Want To Be A Hero computer game was released after Milton Bradley's Hero Quest board game, but MB's game was still being actively marketed. There was also a computer game port of the board game, but it does not appear to have been released in NA. Although both games were fantasy medieval games, there were few similarities beyond that. Ultimately Sierra bent and changed the name of their game rather than try to prevail in court against the the might of MB.

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