One of the most fascinating aspects of being part of the legal profession is the unique and often wide-reaching precedents that come as a result of legal cases in the entertainment industries.

A fascinating example of this in action is how a pair of karate-themed computer games in the 1980s defined copyright law regarding generic conventions for the following four decades.

The scènes à faire doctrine (“scenes which must be done” in French), is the concept that any element that is required to be in a creative work that fits a particular generic convention cannot be protected by copyright law.

The concept has not been fully defined in the UK the same way it has in the USA, but one American case that has proven to be exceptionally influential in such matters does involve a British-made computer game.

The case of Data East USA v Epyx has a somewhat convoluted history. In 1984, Data East released the arcade game Karate Champ, which was a highly popular early simulation of the sport of full-contact karate that is believed to have started the genre of fighting games that continues to be popular to this day.

They would release a port of the game to home computers where it would be similarly successful but also cross paths with a popular game imported from Great Britain.

London-based System 3 would hire the late Archer Maclean to create International Karate, another huge hit that was released in the United States by Epyx under the name World Karate Championship.

The games had similarities in their mechanics, but Mr Maclean claimed that all games about karate would be likely to feature similarities.

Initially, the District Court ruled that whilst there had been no trademark violation, there had been a copyright violation due to the level of similarities, but on appeal, the similarities that had led to an injunction were from constraints inherent to the computers the games ran on and those of the sport itself.

Ironically, despite losing this case, Data East would benefit from its decision six years later in 1994, when it was sued by Capcom USA in a very similar case involving the arcade games Street Fighter II and Fighter’s History. 

A similar case happened between Apple Computers and Microsoft Corporation over the look and feel of Mac OS and Microsoft Windows.

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