Atari v. Nintendo

Citation: Atari, Inc. v. Nintendo of America, Inc., 975 F.2d 832 (Fed. Cir. 1992).

Factual Background
In order to obtain a copy of a computer program installed on plaintiff’s microchip, the defendant falsely alleged to the Copyright Office that it was already involved in litigation; the defendant then used the copy to reverse engineer the program.

Federal Circuit Decision
The court summarily disposed of a fair use defense on the basis of defendant’s bad faith conduct. The court wrote: “To invoke the fair use exception, an individual must possess an authorized copy.”