Atari Games Corp. v. Oman is court case dealing with the copyright status of a video game. Breakout is a paddle and ball video game created by the plaintiff, Atari Games Corporation, which was released in 1976. Eleven years later, in 1987, the plaintiff sought registration for the work with the US Copyright Office. On February 13, 1987 and again on May 22, 1987, Copyright Registrar Ralph Oman refused to register the work because it "did not contain at least a minimum amount of original pictorial or graphic authorship, or authorship in sounds". Atari challenged Oman's use of discretion not to award the game copyright protection.