A federal judge ruled against Commodore.

However, both sides claimed victory in a suit involving four Commodore Business Machines engineers who left the computer company last year to join Atari Inc., a California-based competitor. In Philadelphia, U.S. District Judge John P. Fullam cleared the four of stealing secret computer plans from Commodore but ruled in favor of Commodore on another aspect of the lawsuit, ordering the engineers to return other papers and equipment that they took when they joined Atari.