Square Enix Slashes Unlicensed Sword Sales

Square Enix has announced a legal victory in a copyright infringement suit against four American based wholesale retailers accused of distributing unlicensed replicas of prop weapons based on the Final Fantasy game and movie franchise. A judgement by the Central District of California Federal Court awards $600,000 to Square Enix and levies an injunction against Edgework Imports, Top Swords, Wholesale Gallery, and, through a separate settlement, Pacific Solutions Marketing to end the continued sale and distribution of unlicensed props. These settlements come after prior out-of-court settlements against KingofSwords.com, Master Cutlery, SwordDemon.com, and TrueSwords.com.

Square Enix representative Yasuhiko Hasegawa stated, “We appreciate the efforts of our fans in identifying those who seek to sell them cheap replicas that undermine our efforts to bring only top quality goods and content to our customers” and, “We will continue to actively pursue those who commit intellectual property infringement against our companies.”

The defendants in the legal settlement issued the apologetic statement, “We regret having sold unauthorized replica merchandise based on the Final Fantasy franchise to our customers. We would not have begun importing and selling these swords if we knew that Square Enix would respond so aggressively to stop us. We will never make this mistake again.”

A wise and praiseworthy move from Square Enix to protect the integrity of its intellectual property rights, and an amusing, albeit heartfelt, response from the defendants. Certainly, most guilty parties wouldn’t “make the mistake” of engaging in copyright infringement if they knew they would get caught and punished for doing so.

Source: Anime News Network