Bally/midway Mfg. Co. v. U.S. International Trade Commission

714 F.2d 1117, 4 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 2309, 219 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 97, 1983 U.S. App. LEXIS 13644
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
DecidedAugust 2, 1983
DocketAppeal 82-32
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 714 F.2d 1117 (Bally/midway Mfg. Co. v. U.S. International Trade Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bally/midway Mfg. Co. v. U.S. International Trade Commission, 714 F.2d 1117, 4 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 2309, 219 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 97, 1983 U.S. App. LEXIS 13644 (Fed. Cir. 1983).

Opinions

FRIEDMAN, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a determination of the U.S. International Trade Commission (“the Commission") that the importation of copies of a particular video game that infringed the appellant’s copyright and trademark covering the game did not violate section 337(a) of the Tariff Act of 1930, 19 U.S.C. § 1337(a) (1976). The ground of the Commission’s decision was that the practice involved — the importation of the infringing games — did not, as the statute requires, have an “effect or tendency” to “destroy or substantially injure an industry ... in the United States.” We reverse.

I.

A. This case grows out of an attempt by the appellant to exclude from the United States foreign-made copies of video games it manufactures and sells in the United States. Video games are a relatively new, but widespread phenomenon in this country. The popularity of the games has resulted in a number of companies which devote substantial resources to the development, production, and sales of this product.

The games generally consist of cabinetry containing electronic circuitry and a television picture tube which serves as a screen on which the visual images of the game are shown. The major component of each game is a printed circuit board which houses the electronic circuitry that generates the images and sounds of the game; the circuit board can be sold separately from the rest of the game.

Unlike most other products, a particular video game generally has only a brief period of popularity, accompanied by high production and sales. As new video games enter the market, the old games decline in popularity, and production and sales decrease. This pattern of production and sales is reinforced by the fact that there are only a limited number of sites for video games {i.e., in arcades), and most arcades will purchase only a few of each game. Thus, there is continual pressure on video game manufacturers to develop new games, and sell as many of each game as possible during its short life-span.

The two games involved in this case, PacMan and Rally-X, were developed by Nam-co Limited of Japan in 1980. In the same year, Namco assigned all of its United States rights to the games, including all related copyrights and trademarks, exclusively to Bally, in return for advance payments and royalties. Specifically, Namco authorized Bally to produce, distribute, and service Rally-X and Pac-Man in the United States.

B. 1. On April 17, 1981, Bally filed with the Commission a complaint alleging that 35 companies violated section 337(a) by importing video games that infringe Bally’s copyrights and common law trademarks on Rally-X and Pac-Man.

[1120]*1120The Commission initiated an investigation in the case on July 1, 1981, and subsequently named 50 respondents. The Commission found that most of the respondents (both foreign and domestic) were in default for failure to respond to the complaint, participate in discovery, or appear in the Commission proceedings. Only a few of the respondents participated in the proceedings at all, and only one of them appeared at the hearing.

A lengthy hearing was held before an administrative law judge, in which substantial testimony was taken and numerous exhibits and depositions were admitted into evidence. The administrative law judge issued a recommended decision in which he concluded that the importation of Pac-Man, but not the importation of Rally-X, had violated section 337(a). After additional hearings, the Commission adopted these recommendations. See In re Certain Coin-Operated Audiovisual Games and Components Thereof, U.S. Int’l Trade Comm’n Publ. No. 1267 (July 1982).

2. The Commission found that Bally’s copyrights on “audiovisual works” in the Pac-Man and Rally-X games (i.e., the mazes, characters, and other graphic works appearing on the screen in the games and the accompanying sound effects) were valid, and were infringed by respondents’ video games that copied these audiovisual works. The Commission also found that Bally had common-law trademark rights to the names “Pac-Man” and “Rally-X,” and that these rights were infringed by the use of similar names on the respondents’ games.

The Commission accepted the administrative law judge’s “traditional definition” of the domestic industry as “that portion of complainant’s business devoted to the exploitation of the intellectual property rights in issue,” and agreed with his application of this definition “only to those facilities making and selling games under the PAC-MAN and Rally-X copyrights and trademarks.” (Emphasis in original.)

The Commission found that under this standard “there is an industry currently involved in the production, distribution and sale” of the Pac-Man game, and that the industry was efficiently operated. The “Pac-Man industry has enjoyed considerable success ...” and “it is expected that PaeMan’s market life will continue, at least through the end of 1982, and possibly longer.”

The Commission then found that the “unfair acts alleged have the effect or tendency of substantially injuring the domestic PacMan industry.” It stated that Bally “has lost ... [a number of] PacMan sales” to infringing imports sold in the United States, which were virtually identical to the Pac-Man game. It also indicated that the substantial percentage by which the prices of the infringing imports are lower than Bally’s prices for Pac-Man “is strong evidence of a tendency to substantially injure the domestic industry.”

The Commission concluded that the importation of video games that infringed Bally’s trademark and copyright on PacMan violated section 337(a). The Commission entered an order under section 337(d) excluding from entry into the United States “[c]oin-operated audiovisual games and components thereof which infringe complainant’s Pac-Man copyrights and/or trademark” except where “such importation is licensed by the copyright and/or trademark owner.”

3. With respect to Rally-X, the Commission concluded that no domestic industry existed. It stated that Bally’s inventory of Rally-X games is low, that “[c]urrently, there are no facilities being used to produce an article competitive with the imported Rally-X games[,]” and that the “[c]omplainant is no longer actively engaged in distribution or sale of Rally-X games.” Based on the administrative law judge’s findings, the Commission concluded that “the popularity of the Rally-X game is in a state of permanent decline[,]” and that “[t]here is nothing in the record to indicate that complainant will resume the manufacture and marketing of the games even if the Commission were to find a violation of section 337 and issue a general exclusion order .... ”

[1121]*1121The Commission also agreed with the administrative law judge that if a Rally-X industry did exist, it was “efficiently and economically operated.”

The Commission also found that, if a Rally-X industry existed, it was not injured by the infringing imports. The Commission stated that “[tjhere is no evidence in the record that the decline in sales of Rally-X games is due to import competition, or that, in absence of import competition, domestic production of the Rally-X game would have continued.” The Commission agreed with the finding of the administrative law judge that “the popularity of the Rally-X game is in a state of permanent decline which is characteristic of such games.”

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714 F.2d 1117, 4 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 2309, 219 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 97, 1983 U.S. App. LEXIS 13644, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ballymidway-mfg-co-v-us-international-trade-commission-cafc-1983.