Lawsuit News - Yu-Gi-Oh NO !

[blowoutcards]

JANUARY 27, 2010 | ANTITRUST & TRADE REG.

Yu-Gi-Oh Case Is Yu-Gi-Over

By Ciaran McEvoy

Daily Journal Staff Writer

LOS ANGELES - The Upper Deck Co. ageed to pay an undisclosed sum to Japan-based Konami Digital Entertainment Inc. Tuesday to settle a counterfeiting lawsuit after acknowledging it produced hundreds of thousands of fake Yu-Gi-Oh! trading cards.

The afternoon deal was struck after each side had given opening statements in a trial to determine damages. U.S. District Judge Valerie Baker Fairbank excused the four-man, four-woman jury.

As part of the deal, Upper Deck agreed to a permanent injunction barring it from distributing the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game and to make a series of undisclosed payments to Konami. Previously, Upper Deck had been the exclusive distributor of the popular game.

Upper Deck's first settlement payment is due Friday and its last is due March 31, according to discussions in court.

Fairbank set a July 26 hearing to discuss an official dismissal of the lawsuit.

"We are pleased that it's over," said a grinning Benjamin J. Fox, a partner at Morrison & Foerster in Los Angeles who represented Konami, outside Fairbank's courtroom. Konami had asked for at least $50 million and up to $150 million in damages.

"Upper Deck is extremely pleased with the cooperative resolution with Konami," said Richard K. Howell, a partner at Rutan & Tucker in Costa Mesa.

Before trial, Upper Deck conceded its printing and distribution of the approximately 611,000 phony cards violated trademark and copyright laws as well as unfair competition laws, according to court documents. The fake cards were printed in China in 2007, imported to the United States and distributed without Konami's authorization, court papers state. Konami Digital Entertainment Inc. v. The Upper Deck Co., CV 08-6630 (C.D. Cal.)

The counterfeiting stemmed from Upper Deck's agreement with its sub-distributors, which called for unsold Yu-Gi-Oh! products to be returned to Upper Deck. The card company repackaged the unsold cards with fake cards, which it marketed as "rare," in order to sell the product to consumers, according to court papers.

During pre-trial depositions, five current and former Upper Deck employees invoked their Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. One Upper Deck employee testified she witnessed the company's chairman Richard McWilliam shredding fake Yu-Gi-Oh! cards in his office after determining they did not look authentic enough, court papers state.

ciaran_mcevoy@dailyjournal.com

[n1nesports]

Originally Posted by MikeDtonation

When the only reason you are releasing shares is because you have to pay 300M$ to Konami, I believe new share owners are paying court cost yes. Not really hard to understand.

The only reason they are in the market it's because they have tied the best players and players associations with contracts. Anyone can build cards, it's printed cardboard. I don't see what quality you are talking about when I open a The cup box at 300$+ and see all my cards with the edges chipped, corners dinged etc..

We are not speculating, McWilliams the president of Upper Deck has been punished several times in court and is a well known criminal.



And by the way, yes they have more money than other companies because they are screwing collectors for decades now. That's why they have money.

They can afford the costs. It's more than cardboard. They mass produce the cards, with glossy finishes and foil/holograms/other materials, not to mention the game-used and auto cards. It's not that simple to create a product like that and package it the way they do, especially with the top notch graphic design (that alone would cost you a lot). If it's so easy maybe you should create your own product and try to get licensing from the majors. See how much it runs you. Also if you are so strongly against UD, why do you buy their products? Anyone who knows about distribution and manufacturing can agree that what they're doing is not cheap and it takes a lot of money to do what they're doing. They wouldn't be driving themselves into the ground just to put out a product, they're profiting.

[MikeDtonation]

Originally Posted by n1nesports

They can afford the costs. It's more than cardboard. They mass produce the cards, with glossy finishes and foil/holograms/other materials, not to mention the game-used and auto cards. It's not that simple to create a product like that and package it the way they do, especially with the top notch graphic design (that alone would cost you a lot). If it's so easy maybe you should create your own product and try to get licensing from the majors. See how much it runs you. Also if you are so strongly against UD, why do you buy their products? Anyone who knows about distribution and manufacturing can agree that what they're doing is not cheap and it takes a lot of money to do what they're doing. They wouldn't be driving themselves into the ground just to put out a product, they're profiting.

I agree they are mass producing, that's how they killed the hockey card market in the early 90's reprinting cards when they were selling at good prices to turn some $$ in their pocket, screwing collectors once again.

About the game-used, they are probably fake. How can you trust Upper Deck, because they told on the back of the card it was? Authenticated by a criminal that is pocketing himself the money of the sale?

Packaging the way they do....yeah that's a problem the way they are doing is damaging the cards.

What are the other choices in hockey than UD? Their lack of ethic killed the competion. Hopefully, ITG will get the license once the exclusive deal with UD is over.

[MpsRedbird]

Originally Posted by maximus

Think upperdeck sucks so do they. upperdecksucks.com since 2000 LMAO

Registrant:
The Upper Deck Company, LLC
5909 Sea Otter Place
Carlsbad, CA 92010
US

Domain Name: UPPERDECKSUCKS.COM

Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:
IT Engineering, Upper Deck
The Upper Deck Company
5909 Sea Otter Place
Carlsbad, CA 92010
US
(760) 929-3457 fax: (760) 929-6531

Record expires on 01-Mar-2012.
Record created on 29-Feb-2000.

Domain servers in listed order:

NS1.AMERICANIS.NET
NS2.AMERICANIS.NET
NS3.AMERICANIS.NET

It's not unusual for companies to purchase domains like this but they get their a third party to purchase the domain. Personally, I think its a waste of money since people can just go buy "upperdeckreallysucks" or "ihateupperdeck" or "dontbuyfromupperdeck" etc. so where do you draw the line?

[n1nesports]

Originally Posted by MikeDtonation

I agree they are mass producing, that's how they killed the hockey card market in the early 90's reprinting cards when they were selling at good prices to turn some $$ in their pocket, screwing collectors once again.

About the game-used, they are probably fake. How can you trust Upper Deck, because they told on the back of the card it was? Authenticated by a criminal that is pocketing himself the money of the sale?

Packaging the way they do....yeah that's a problem the way they are doing is damaging the cards.

What are the other choices in hockey than UD? Their lack of ethic killed the competion. Hopefully, ITG will get the license once the exclusive deal with UD is over.

Nobody from here (I assume) knows for sure if they are fake or not, I always thought about it and I wouldn't doubt it, it`s a realistic possibility. But it's one of those theories only the people who make the cards know. But that's a whole other debate. I'm not defending UD from a moral standpoint. I'm just pointing out, that saying a company like UD who have been operating for so long and still have the power to put out a professional looking product to the masses is delusional.
Well besides UD you have Fleer and ITG. ITG has some really nice cards.

[blowoutcards]

Upper Deck Vs Kanomi the Crimeline of Events Cult-Stuff

[mwheeler27]

So upper deck counterfeited cards. They admitted to counterfeiting cards. They were found guilty of counterfeiting cards. Yet people are going to buy new "card" products from upper deck.

[maximus]

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/busines...#ixzz0e6rjk4T2

[mwheeler27]

Originally Posted by maximus

Upper Deck settles counterfeiting case with Konami Digital Entertainment over Yu-Gi-Oh! cards - NYPOST.com

"After trading lawsuits and motions for over a year, Upper Deck and Konami agreed to a binding settlement at the start of a trial to determine damages earlier this week. The second payment is due March 31."

Read more: Upper Deck settles counterfeiting case with Konami Digital Entertainment over Yu-Gi-Oh! cards - NYPOST.com

So what's the reason for the second payment? So upper deck can cheat as many new customers as they can AND THE MLB in order to make enough money to payoff this settlement in 2 months?

[maximus]

Upper Deck Forced to Settle With Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. After Admitting to Counterfeiting Hundreds of Thousands of Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME Cards

The Upper Deck Company permanently barred from acting as an authorized distributor of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME

Download image EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Feb. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. (KDE) is pleased to announce that it has resolved its litigation against The Upper Deck Company (Upper Deck), KDE's former distributor of its immensely popular Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME (TCG). The lawsuit was settled to Konami's satisfaction following opening statements during the trial in Federal Court in Los Angeles on January 26, 2010.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/...13/LA37666LOGO)

"At this point, Upper Deck doesn't have a lot of Life Points. We're talking about behavior that, from a defense attorney's standpoint, I can't defend and I am not going to defend," noted attorney Richard Howell, of Rutan & Tucker, who represented The Upper Deck Company during the trial. "I'm here defending a counterfeiter. And now I have to deal with that issue."

"We are extremely pleased with the successful resolution of our case against Upper Deck," said Kazumi Kitaue, Chairman of KDE. "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 authorized 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," commented KDE's Vice President 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."

The litigation began in October 2008, when KDE discovered that counterfeit cards from the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG were being sold in Toys "R" Us stores by a sub-distributor for Upper Deck. KDE filed suit, and the sub-distributor told KDE that the counterfeit cards were supplied by Upper Deck.

"As a leading company in this card industry, Upper Deck should have known more than well that counterfeit activities would irreparably harm the trust of Duelists and the integrity of the Yu-Gi-Oh! brand," said KDE's Hoashi. Upper Deck initially denied those charges and issued press releases announcing that any suggestion that Upper Deck would be involved in counterfeiting activity is "absurd."

Failing to own up to its actions, Upper Deck sent out a press release on January 29, 2010 stating its satisfaction with the settlement and how the judge ruled against KDE in several areas. The ruling that United States District Judge Valerie Baker Fairbank made on December 23, 2009 was simple. She ruled that Upper Deck violated trademark, copyright and unfair competition laws by counterfeiting Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG cards.

Discovery in the lawsuit revealed that Upper Deck had counterfeited Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG cards, and that it took extensive steps to cover-up that activity. The cover-up included a meeting in the office of Upper Deck's chairman, in which he and at least one other Upper Deck employee compared samples of authentic Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG cards against fakes made by Upper Deck, and shredded the samples in the chairman's office, as well as an e-mail from an employee of Upper Deck to other employees asking to provide her information on how to obtain Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG security foils "in secrecy."

Following almost one full year of court proceedings, Upper Deck finally admitted to having printed in China and importing to the U.S. hundreds of thousands of bogus Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG cards. Mr. Howell of Rutan & Tucker noted in the opening statement to the jury: "The behavior is still undeniably wrong. And I am in here, as counsel for the two defendants, asking you to hold my clients accountable for that behavior; asking you to hold my clients responsible for this conduct that there is no dispute, and there was no disputing even before this case started today, that it was wrong."

KDE announced in mid-December 2008 that it would assume responsibility for the distribution of its Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG in territories outside of Asia. As the Court's recent ruling confirms, KDE's decision was due to Upper Deck's involvement in printing and distributing counterfeit Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG cards.

For more information on Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. or the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG please visit www.yugioh-card.com.

About The Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG

The Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME is the #1 trading card game in the world with over 22 billion cards sold. It is a game of strategy, where players create individual Decks of cards collected from Structure Decks and Booster Packs. Two players engage in a Duel while using cards that represent powerful monsters, magical Spells and surprising Traps. Duelists with well-constructed Decks, dominating monsters, solid strategy and good fortune are the victors in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. is the manufacturer and distributor of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG in North America and Latin America.

About Konami

Konami is a leading developer, publisher and manufacturer of electronic entertainment properties and traditional trading card games. Konami's software titles include the popular franchises Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, DanceDanceRevolution and Castlevania, among other top sellers. Konami is also the manufacturer of the wildly popular Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME, which has sold more than 22 billion cards worldwide. The latest information about Konami can be found on the Web at Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc.. Konami Corporation is a publicly traded company based in Tokyo, Japan with subsidiary offices, Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. in Tokyo, Japan, Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. in the United States and Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH in Frankfurt, Germany. Konami Corporation is traded in the United States on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol KNM. Details of the products published by Konami can be found at Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc..

Media Contact:

Don Williams

Williams Group Public Relations

(760) 707-4589

don@williamsgrouppr.com





SOURCE Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc.

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