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Japan's Supreme Court Rejects Koei Tecmo's Appeal of Capcom's Patent Lawsuit
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
The Japanese Supreme Court's Third Petty Bench rejected Koei Tecmo Games' appeal of CAPCOM's patent infringement lawsuit on Tuesday. The bench upheld the Intellectual Property High Court's earlier ruling for Koei Tecmo to pay CAPCOM 143,843,710 yen (about US$1.34 million).
CAPCOM had filed a lawsuit with the Osaka District Court on July 4, 2014. CAPCOM claimed Koei Tecmo infringed on Patent No. 3350773 (Patent A) with the Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors game series, and Patent No. 3295771 (Patent B) with the Fatal Frame game series. CAPCOM argued that Koei Tecmo infringed on Patent A with "new content acquired through using a previous game and new software" and on Patent B with "a controller-vibrating feature when enemies are nearby."
The Osaka District Court ruled on December 14, 2017 that Koei Tecmo infringed on only Patent B, and ordered the company to pay 5.17 million yen (about US$48,000) in damages and legal fees.
CAPCOM was dissatisfied with the Osaka District Court ruling and filed an appeal with the Intellectual Property High Court on December 27, 2017. CAPCOM requested damages that totaled 983,231,115 yen (about US$9.12 million) for Koei Tecmo's infringement of Patents A and B. The Intellectual Property High Court ruled on September 11, 2019 that only part of Koei Tecmo's relevant works infringed on Patent A, and therefore ordered Koei Tecmo to pay only part of the amount that CAPCOM requested.
Koei Tecmo filed for an appeal to the Supreme Court of Japan on September 25, 2019.
