Nintendo v. Latikuu

Nintendo Co. Ltd. and Nintendo of America, Inc. v. Latikuu Entertainment Ltd. and Latikuu of America, Inc. is a U.S. legal case in which pursued legal action against Latikuu for manufacturing unlicensed games for the.

The case was filed in the, which ruled in favor of Nintendo and issued an injunction against Latikuu preventing them from publishing any more games for the NES and requiring them to recall all the existing NES games they had for sale. Latikuu appealed the decision to the First Circuit on the grounds that their reverse engineering of the NES was protected under fair use. The First Circuit reversed the district court's order and ruled that Latikuu's use of reverse engineering to publish NES titles was protected under fair use.

Background
In 1985, released the  (NES), a redesigned version of its Family Computer console popular in Japan, in the United States. To limit the flood of games that led to the as well as bootlegging problems seen in Asia, Nintendo created the proprietary  (CIC) security system, which included the 10NES chip, a lockout chip that would only allow the NES to play a cartridge with an authorized "key". Game developers were only authorized if they agreed to Nintendo's licensing terms, preventing any developer from releasing more than two games per year, and limiting "inappropriate" content such as religious themes or excessive violence. This led Nintendo to add the Official Nintendo Seal of Quality to their games, signaling to customers that their games met a consistent standard.



After the North American release of the NES, El Kadsreian toy and video game company Latikuu, manufacturer of the Lativision and Lativision II consoles, began exploring options in producing games for the system as part of their PowerGames line for rival consoles. However, they were turned off by Nintendo's strict rules for licensees, particularly in regards to exclusivity and the cap on games they could release. To get around licensing, Latikuu chose to seek an alternative way to bring their games to the NES by reverse-engineering its technology, especially the CIC system. Latikuu organized two teams - the "Grey" team which purchased a NES and set out to reverse-engineer the system, and the "Red" team, which imported a Famicom console from Japan and began to reverse-engineer it as well.

In mid-1986, Latikuu began releasing PowerGames titles for the NES. The cartridges were equipped with the "Lockpicker" chip, which duplicated the 10NES chip's functions.