Konami has become target of lawsuit by Japan Professional Basebal...
Konami has become target of lawsuit by Japan Professional Baseball Players Assn. (JPBA) that charges game maker infringed on copyrights by using images of ballplayers in its games. JPBA, which represents players on Japan’s 12 pro baseball teams, also…
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filed suit against Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), association of pro baseball teams that has exclusive contract with Konami. Suit is attempt to stop Konami from selling its software in Jikkyo Powerful Pro Baseball series and products including Baseball Pro Yakyu Japan 2001 and Power Prokun Pocket for consoles, Kyodo News Service report said. JPBA also wants Konami and NPB to admit they have no authority to approve use of names of baseball teams and players in April 2000-March 2003 period. Report said JPBA claimed NPB had signed contract in 1999 with Konami for that period -- without prior consultation with JPBA -- giving game maker exclusive rights that prevent other game makers from developing baseball titles. JPBA said rights to images belonged to individual baseball players and it wanted Konami and NPB to start sublicensing Konami’s rights to competing game makers, report said, adding that JPBA said it had yet to receive reply from Konami or NPB. Konami comment was unavailable at our Tues. deadline, but report said game maker indicated it couldn’t comment because it had yet to see suit, although it hoped issue would be resolved quickly by JPBA and NPB. Latter disputed JPBA’s claims, saying it had right to control and use image rights of baseball players because rights had value only because of baseball games held by NPB and other organizations. Case is similar to one involving Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) in Netherlands (CED Aug 12 p6). SCE was accused of infringing on trademarks of 3 top Dutch pro soccer clubs in game This Is Football 2002. Reuters said shares in Konami tumbled 4.72% to ?2,925 after suit was filed Mon. Its shares had been up for 5 straight trading sessions and hit 3-month high earlier that day. Merrill Lynch analyst Ken Uryu said game maker had no plan to halt selling games in question and he didn’t expect there would be negative impact on Konami’s earnings for current fiscal year, Reuters reported. But report said Uryu wrote note to clients telling them: “The question is whether Konami’s results for the fiscal year to March 2004 onwards will be affected when it will be necessary to update the contract” it now has for baseball games. Konami has been selling 1.4-1.6 million copies of baseball-related games annually for last few years, he said.