Nestle Sued for ‘Breakout’ Clone & Advertisement
Atari is suing mega-brand Nestle for copyright infringement on Breakout. The game where you bounce a ball at bricks to break them, in order to clear the screen and escape. It’s been around since the early days of gaming and you’ve probably seen some variation of it over the years.
In the U.K., Nestle used Breakout for a Kit-Kat commercial. Instead of blocks of random colors, they turned into Kit-Kat bars.
Nestle’s commercial “leverage Breakout and the special place it holds among nostalgic Baby Boomers, Generation X, and even today’s Millennial and post-Millennial ‘gamers’ in order to maximize the advertisement’s reach,” states the legal team for Atari. The commercial, which is no longer online, features 4 people of different ages, all playing this Nestle version of Breakout, asking people to join in and “Breakout” with a Kit-Kat.
Nestle has not commented on the legal matter. But Atari does have a solid case if Nestle used the Breakout name and game, with tweaks, without seeking Atari’s approval – or not paying for use of the copyright.
