On January 23, Atari put out a NFTs itself, Atari has since shuttered that side of the business and refocused on retro game publishing and videogame history.
"RealPongCoin or $PONG is using Atari's ed PONG trademark without Atari's consent or approval and the company has no affiliation with the crypto project," the press release reads. "Atari is warning the public that RealPongCoin risks deceiving consumers by suggesting an affiliation with Atari, and that Atari's legal team is actively reviewing measures to stop the misuse of its intellectual property."
A quick check-up on RealPongCoin does not inspire much confidence. On Google, news of Atari's statement on the matter swamps anything put out by $PONG itself, with the meme coin's primary footprint being a desolate X and a largely empty website that declares, "It's not over… Yes it's real…," with links to a Telegram channel, blockchain contract, and portal to purchase $PONG.
Adopting a legal strategy from the "you have to tell me if you're a cop" school of jurisprudence, the $PONG X declares "not d with Atari" in two separate places. A disclaimer on the website asserts it "is not designed to be, or to be perceived as, an investment opportunity, investment contract, or security of any kind." That latter disclaimer seems to have become a bit of a boilerplate fig leaf of deniability adopted by new crypto projects to defend against prosecution over their essential nature as poorly-regulated securities—the new TrumpCoin boasts a similar disclaimer.
All of which begs the question: Why even waste your breath over a clown show like this when you can just let your legal team take it out behind the shed with minimal fanfare? "My 'not involved with this shitcoin' press release has people asking a lot of questions answered by my press release."
The problem is that if you hadn't been following the company closely, you'd be forgiven for thinking it had fallen back in with a bad crowd. For a while in the late '10s and early '20s, Atari was a bit of an innovator in the hypebeast hotel leading us all to wonder what had happened to the publisher.
But then things took another turn: remaster of The Thing.
So the ship's been turned around, but that's precisely why Atari has more reason than most to vociferously denounce a fly-by-night crypto scam flying the flag of its IP. Even still, I don't know how the company will overcome the ironclad legal defense of "no copyright infringement intended."
