By “This demand is cautious and sensible”
- by Gavin Lane
Nintendo and Amazon are pursuing a default judgment in a shared lawsuit initiated in October 2023 against sellers believed to have sold counterfeit Nintendo merchandise on Amazon. (Thanks, Polygon.)
The plaintiffs submitted documentation in the US earlier this week requesting a default judgment totaling $7 million in statutory damages against third-party sellers accused of distributing $2 million worth of fake Nintendo products, including amiibo and game cartridges. Summons were delivered to the defendants, but they did not respond, according to court documents.
As per these documents, each of the 27 Nintendo trademark violations leads to total potential statutory damages ranging from at least $27,000 to a maximum of $54 million. The proposed $7 million amount was calculated by tripling “the total sales of the counterfeit items”, which the report describes as “cautious, reasonable, and consistent with other rulings in this District”.
Nintendo is well-known for utilizing its legal resources, and considering the volume of counterfeit amiibo cards, mini consoles, soundtracks, figurines, and several other unauthorized Nintendo items being sold on Amazon and elsewhere, it’s understandable why they would be keen to deter further infringement.
Perhaps they should break out the steamroller once more like they did in the Netherlands back in the ’90s.
[source
Gavin first contributed to Nintendo Life in 2018 and became a full-time writer the following year, climbing through the ranks to become Editor. He can currently be found buried under a Switch backlog the size of Normandy.