Namco on the legal offensive against fake coin-op maker....

[Curt Vendel]

NAMCO SUES OVER ALLEGED COUNTERFEIT GAMES

 

(posted Wednesday, April 9, 2003 -- 3PM)

 

Video game maker Namco, which owns the rights to the popular Pac-Man and Galaga

video games, announced today that it had filed a suit and obtained an injunction

against a seller of alleged counterfeit arcade video games, PC Amusements of

Orlando, Florida, and its owner, Luis Molinary. The counterfeit video games were

being sold to the public from various outlets, including Internet auction sites.

Namco filed suit in the Orlando Federal District Court, and the court granted an

order allowing the United States Marshal service to seize and impound the video

games and parts in question. Namco America's president Kevin Hayes said: "The

Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga video games are still popular in the United

States even after 20 years from their introduction. Namco continues to sell

various models of our 20 Year Reunion: Class of '81 Ms. Pac-Man / Galaga,

incorporating Pac-Man. The market has responded by buying over 13,000 of the new

game consoles, and sales are still brisk. Namco will not hesitate to enforce its

strong intellectual property rights, trademarks and copyrights against those who

seek to trade on its valuable video game properties." Neil A. Smith,

intellectual property specialist attorney at Howard Rice Nemerovski Falk Canady

& Rabkin in San Francisco, counsel to Namco, said, "The courts will grant

immediate restraining orders and seizure orders when provided with strong

evidence of trademark and copyright counterfeiting, as is the case here." When

contacted by RePlay today, Molinary said that his company had ceased making

replacement graphics for Pac-Man games more than six months ago, but conceded

that they had reproduced graphics in the past and in some cases used them in

conjunction with boards purchased from importers. PC Amusements repairs or

restores and then resells arcade video and pinball games, and often reproduces

graphics for those games as well as for other companies. "Everybody and their

dog had been doing the same thing (with Pac-Man artwork) and we didn't know it

was illegal," he said. "All they needed to do was send us a letter. If we are

infringing on somebody's copyright we want to know. We cease and desist as soon

as we receive a letter." Molinary said he hoped to see the issue settled out of

court. The suit seeks an injunction, money damages and attorneys' fees. In

addition to the Seizure Order, the Federal Court issued a Restraining Order.

Namco cautioned its customers to buy only from authorized Namco dealers and

distributors. For more information contact the Namco America sales office at

630/238-2248.

[Cassidy Nolen]

These counterfeit ones are all over the auctions now. I am not sure if they are raising or lowering the price of the real ones, but I have to admit, I am sort of glad they will not be making them now. There will always be a bootleg market, but not as blatent as these people have been (painted "sticker" coin doors don't really do it for me, and yes, I know the Namco one also does that on the cabaret ).

 

Cassidy

[CPUWIZ]

They have to do whatever they can to stay alive, they are making nothing but losses. In fact the Namco America office is down to a handful of people. The coin-up market is dying.

[Mock]

I think the coin-op market has lost it's edge...if they were smart, they would go back to making the classics again. I was at a flea market this weekend and they have the old yellow Pac-Man...still in good shape...and a Pole Position still in good shape....and there were kids all over it playing...I think if they just concentrated on making the popular games like that there would be a market...the new coin op games are horrible compared to the old days...

 

They should have never let the consoles pass up the arcade games...when you can play it at home and it looks better than the arcade version...why bother.

 

The classics could be sold all over the place from pizza places to retail stores...problem is now I wouldn't even touch some of the public machines,many are 20+ years old and are just nasty looking...dirty and ugly.

 

Another thing is price...they should not try to make all the money on 1 pac man machine...come on..production cost shoud be very low...mark up on it should be within proportion.

 

Mock

[AtariDude]

This would explain why Namco and Sega are getting together to discuss a merger. Namco must realize that the arcade is dieing a slow death similar to what has happened to pinball machine makers (I think only one pinball manufacturer exists today).

 

Glad that they are able to stop this person from making counterfeits. Hopefully they will be able to recoop some of their losses by suing this person.