First videogame lawsuit

The massive success of the videogame Pong (Atari, 1972) spawned many imitators. Perhaps surprisingly, it was the makers of two of these imitators – Allied Leisure Industries, Inc. and Midway Manufacturing, Inc. – and not Atari who took part in the first videogame lawsuit. In a complaint filed on 19 October 1973, Allied claimed that Midway had copied the designs of the printed circuit boards for their game. The two companies reached an out-of-court settlement in 1974, before a decision on the merits of the case could be rendered, thus setting the pattern for many subsequent videogame lawsuits.