Konami wins litigation against Yu-Gi-Oh! counterfeiters
Publisher sues former trading card partner following mass forgeries
Konami has triumphed in litigation it brought against its former distribution partner of Yu-Gi-Oh! trading cards after it emerged the company had forged hundreds of thousands of the cards and sold them directly to Toys R Us stores.
The lawsuit was settled in a Federal Court trial held in Los Angeles at the end of last month, where a US District Judge ruled that the distributor, Upper Deck, had violated trademark, copyright and unfair competition laws by counterfeiting the cards.
Even Upper Deck's legal representative condemned his client's actions, saying in court: "At this point, Upper Deck doesn't have a lot of Life Points. We're talking about behaviour that, from a defence attorney's standpoint, I can't defend and I am not going to defend."
"We are extremely pleased with the successful resolution of our case against Upper Deck," said Kazumi Kitaue, chairman of Konami, following the verdict.
"Konami's goal is and has been to protect Duelists from counterfeit Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG cards and to protect the integrity of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. This goal was achieved when Upper Deck was prohibited for eternity from distributing counterfeit Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG cards and from holding itself out as the authorised distributor of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG."
"This entire situation came as a huge shock to us. As a company that has based their entire business model on producing authentic entertainment and sports licensed products, Upper Deck went against their very core beliefs by counterfeiting Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG Cards," added Konami VP of Card Business Yumi Hoashi. "It was very disheartening to learn that a trusted business partner would take these actions to dupe us and the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG community."
Litigation was instigated in October 2008 when Konami discovered that counterfeit cards were being sold in Toys R Us stores by a sub-distributor for Upper Deck.
Upper Deck initially denied the allegations, calling them "absurd", but later admitted to printing in China and then importing to the US hundreds of thousands of bogus Yu-Gi-Oh! cards.
Following the discovery of the counterfeits, Konami announced in mid-December 2008 that it would assume all responsibility for the cards' distribution in territories outside of Asia.