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Tetris knock-offs pulled from Android Market

From Russia with love and a cease and desist order

Tetris knock-offs pulled from Android Market
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| Tetris (Android)

A whole bunch of Tetris clones have mysteriously disappeared from the Android Market. No, they didn't perfectly line up, blink out of existence and then give a high score. Google removed them.

According to MobPlug,the developer of FallingBlocks, which openly agrees that its game uses "the same gameplay concepts as Tetris," around 36 Tetris-styled apps have been removed by Google, per a request from The Tetris Company, LLC.

The company sent a notice of infringement of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), saying the games are in violation of trademark and unfair competition laws. Writing in a document to an infringing developer, The Tetris Company writes that the games are "likely to confuse consumers into believing that Google or the developer has received the permission" of the company.

27 of the games use the word Tetris in their names, such as Tetris for Android and Tetris Party. The grounds for their removal is clear and incontestable. However,FallingBlocks, and the other eight games that don't use the copyrighted name, feel their removal is a little less fair.

A member of MobPlugtold DroidGamers,"besides having the same gameplay as Tetris, which i believe cannot be copyrighted, the game uses its own name, graphics and sounds. There's no reference to "Tetris" in our game."

The legal documents provided say the games are "substantially similar to our client's game". Obviously, small independent developers don't have the resources to battle such claims legally.

EA Mobile currently has an officially licensed Tetris game on the Android marketplace, although user comments are primarily negative, while countries and devices that cannot access the marketplace aren't able to purchase it.

Mark Brown
Mark Brown
Mark Brown is editor at large of Pocket Gamer