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Volume 3/No. 8
April 22, 1977
Gremlin, Ramtek In Legal Tangle
G~·emlin Industries, Inc. of San
Diego, Cal., has announced that it
filed a lawsuit for trademark in-
fringement against Ramtek Corp.,
Sunnyvale, Cal., on January 14,
1977. Tl'le products involved are
coin-operated video games. The
trademarks involved are Blockade
by Gremlin and Barricade by
Ramtek.
At a preliminary injunction hear-
ing in the Superior Court for Los
Angeles County on March 10,
Charles E. McEwan, president of
Ramtek filed a statement.
The
statement, according to Gremlin
sources, indicated that Ramtek
Corp. had stopped producing Barri-
cade-designated video games. The
statement also said that if Ramtek
produces further video games of
this type , they will be designated by
the name of Brickyard.
After the hearing, Frank Fogle-
man, president of Gremlin , an-
nounced that, while Ramtek 's dis-
continuation of the Barricade desig-
nation was welcome, Gremlin in-
tends to pursue the lawsuit against
Ramtek vigorously through trial in
an effort to obtain money damages
and a permanent injunction.
Fogleman also announced that
Gremlin is issuing a letter to the
Ramtek distributors advising them
of the latest development in the
lawsuit and demanding that the use
of the Barricade designation by the
distributors be discontinued on any
such video games in their posses-
sions.
According to Mel McEwan, direc-
tor of sales at Ramtek, however,
Ramtek is vigorously challenging
the claims made by Gremlin that its
trademark is infringed by the
Barricade designation.
Ramtek contends that the Barri-
cade name is not confusingly similar
to Gremlin 's alleged trademark
Blockade and that neither name can
be a valid trademark since both are
merely descriptive of the blocking
type video game to which they are
applied. Ramtek has filed a cross
complaint for unfair competition
against Gremlin Industries, accord-
ing to McEwan, "in an effort to
prevent harassment of Ramtek's
customers by Gremlin's threats of
suit. "
To date, according to sources at
Ramtek, Gremlin's request for a
temporary restraining order against
Ramtek has been denied. Gremlin
thereafter requested that the judge
be disqualified . Gremlin's subse-
quent request to a new judge for a
preliminary injunction against Ram-
tek was also denied.
In order to "demonstrate Ram-
tek's good faith to the Court," a
company spokesman told Play
Meter, "Ramtek has voluntarily
agreed to cease production of
Barricade designated games pend-
ing the outcome of this lawsuit."
Any blocking games manufactured
in the interim will be designated
Brickyard.
Ramtel< President Charles E.
McEwan's declaration to the court,
the spokesman said, expressly
stated that this was done only to
spare Ramtek's customers further
harassment. The Court took note of
this declaration, he continued, in
denying Gremlin's request for a
preliminary injunction against Ram-
tek.
In a statement released to the
press, Ramtek declared that it "has
never knowingly infringed anyone's
trademark rights . The Barricade
designation was chosen in ac-
cordance with Ramtek 's long estab-
lished policy in naming its games
descriptively, such as, Hockey,
Soccer, Volly, Trivia, and Horo-
scope . Ramtek believes such names
cannot function as trademarks and
cannot infringe the trademarks of
others.
" Ramtek firmly believes that
competition in the video game field
should be carried out fairly and
honestly in the marketplace and not
in a courtroom."
AMOA Board Meets
At its recent mid-year meeting,
held March 24-26 in Houston.
Texas, the AMOA Board of Direc-
tors voted unanimously to continue
holding the annual Exposition and
Trade Show in Chicago.
The resolution passed reads as
follows: "We reaffirm that the
AMOA Exposition and Trade Show
will continue to be held in Chicago
and that the AMOA will, as it has
always done, make every effort to to
hold its annual show concurrently
with NAMA when that association
meets in Chicago for its annual
convention."
NAMA recently voted to expand
its exhibits to include music and