Play Meter

Merit buys
Nomac assets
Following three months of negotia-
tion. Merit Industries has agreed to
buy the assets of Nomac. Ltd .. August
18.
The purchase includes all of
Nomac's tooling. patents. trademarks.
copyrights. and inventory. Merit will
maintain all Nomac personnel and
facilities . Nomac principals Fred
Kelley and Bill McClure will be avail-
able on a consulting basis as needed.
Merit. manufacturer of Bull Buster
Darts. will add Pub Time Darts to its
product line. Peter Feuer. president of
Merit. said. "We have acquired a well
established product line that is well
liked by players and operators. We
can greatly expand the market share
the product enjoys. and we plan to do
this by offering a support program of
league and tournament promotions.
outstanding service through our net-
work of distributors. and engineering
strength to maintain the product at its
technical peak."
Feuer said Merit will continue to
develop promotional campaigns and
work with the newly formed AMOA
Dart Association.
•
boards are tested.
Fay said he will go to Los Angeles in
September. after federal authorities
have been able to review evidence
obtained in the search. to recommend
charges to the U.S. attorney.
Depending on circumstances in
the case. charges could be included in
a bill of information and the case
could be brought before a federal
magistrate. Otherwise. the govern-
ment could seek indictments by bring-
ing the case before a federal grand
jury. Charges are expected to include
trademark and copyright infringe-
ment. Conviction on the charges
carries a maximum penalty of five
years' imprisonment tor each count of
the former and two years' for each
count of the latter.
Faco West. with William B. Faith. Jr ..
named as the company's owner. is a
defendent in a civil suit tiled in May by
Nintendo of America. which charged
that the company infringed Nintendo's
copyright of its VS. ~xcitebike game.
As a result of the suit. a federal court in
June enjoined Faco West from import-
ing video games copyrighted by Nin-
tendo of America.
Fay said m ore searches like that of
Faco West are expected to take place
soon throughout the U.S. There are
"about live priority cases" to be made
in cracking down on U.S. distributors of
parallel games and counterfeits. he
said. adding that the "targets" are
"renegade. outlaw distributors and
big operators."
The Faco West search resulted
from an investigation stemming from
operator complaints. according to
Fay. who said he's been receiving
about five calls a week from operators
FBI seizes Faco West
goods, records
FBI agents looking for counterieit
and parallel games seized business
records. 70 printed-circuit boards. and
571 marquees July 22 in executing a
federal search warrant of Faco West.
Inc.. a North Hollywood. Calif.. dis-
tributor.
According to Robert Fay. American
Amusement Machine Association
(AAMA) directorofindustryaffairs. the
seizure resulted in a "massive" amount
of evidence for the FBI to sift through.
Some of the seized boards were par-
allel imports. he said. but the exact
numbers of parallel and counterfeit
boards seized won't be known until the
6
4..
Sony's Ero! Uckan explains the comp:::my's player mechanism used in
Seeburg's LaserMusic compact-disc jukebox to service technicians
attending a Seeburg training session in Rosemont. Ill.
PLAY METER. August 15. 1986