a license fee was the fax from Pajitnov and Brjabrin, meaning that Stein sold the license for a game he did not yet own. Stein contacted Pajitnov and asked him for a contract for the rights. Stein began negotiations via fax, offering 75% of the revenue generated by Stein from the license. Elektronorgtechnica ("Elorg"), the Soviet Union's central organization for the import and export of computer software, was unconvinced and requested 80% of the revenue. Stein made several trips to Moscow and held long discussions with Elorg representatives. Stein came to an agreement with Elorg on February 24, 1988. On May 10 he signed a contract for a ten-year worldwide Tetris license for all current and future computer systems. Pajitnov and Brjabrin were unaware that the game was already on sale and that Stein had claimed to own the rights prior to the agreement. Although Pajitnov would not receive any percentage from these sales, he said that "the fact that so many people enjoy my game is enough for me". Acquisition of rights by Nintendo and legal battle In 1988, Spectrum HoloByte sold the Japanese rights to its computer games and arcade machines to Bullet-Proof Software's Henk Rogers, who was searching for games for the Japanese market. Mirrorsoft sold its Japanese rights to Atari Games subsidiary Tengen, which then sold the Japanese arcade rights to Sega and the console rights to BPS, which published versions for Japanese computers, including the MSX2, PC-88 and X68000, along with a console port for the Nintendo Family Computer (Famicom), known outside Japan as the Nintendo Entertainment System. At this point, almost a dozen companies believed they held the Tetris rights, with Stein retaining rights for home computer versions. The Soviet Union's Elorg was still unaware of the deals Stein had negotiated, which did not bring money to them. Tetris was a commercial success in North America, Europe and Asia. The same year, Nintendo was preparing to launch its first portable console, the Game Boy. Nintendo was attracted to Tetris by its simplicity and established success on the Famicom. Rogers, who was close to then Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi, sought to obtain the handheld rights. After a failed negotiation with Atari, Rogers contacted Stein in November 1988. Stein agreed to sign a contract, but explained that he had to consult Elorg before returning to negotiations with Rogers. After contacting Stein several times, Rogers began to