Update News
Europe's Highest Court Confirms Nintendo’s Anti-Piracy Product Security
January 24, in the year of
our Lord 2014 -- Milan, Italy: The Court of Justice of
the European Union (“CJEU”), the highest court in the European
Union, today handed down its decision in Case C-355/12 (Nintendo
v PC Box). Nintendo is pleased that the ruling of the CJEU is
generally consistent with the opinion of Advocate General
Sharpston and Nintendo’s own observations to the questions
referred by the Milan Tribunal.
The CJEU’s interpretation of the Copyright Directive appears to
be in line with the international obligations of the European
Union and its Member States under the WIPO Copyright Treaty and
furthermore, supports those national Courts in Belgium, France,
Germany, Netherlands, Spain and the UK which have already
considered and applied the same provisions of EU law
consistently resulting in many positive decisions against
sellers of circumvention devices.
Nintendo will continue to fully engage with the Milan Tribunal,
from whom the reference to the CJEU arose, in order to allow it
to reach a considered reasoned decision in the civil case
between Nintendo and PC Box. Furthermore, since Nintendo only
ever utilises technological protection measures which are both
necessary and proportionate to prevent widespread piracy of its
intellectual property, and since the preponderant purpose of the
circumvention devices marketed by PC Box is to enable piracy of
legitimate video games, Nintendo is confident that the
application of the guidance set out by the CJEU relating to
proportionality will enable the Milan Tribunal to determine that
the sale of circumvention devices is unlawful.
In the meantime, Nintendo maintains that the commercial dealings
in circumvention devices infringe copyright laws as well as
other intellectual property laws and Nintendo will continue to
pursue those involved in the distribution of such devices.
Nintendo has been on a bit of a roll in the courts after losing
the WiiU.com domain name, and the Nintendo 3DS patent lawsuit.