Play Meter

nEWS
Konami products.
"Konami employs private investi-
gators nationwide to develop data
on suspected dealers and operators
of counterfeit Konami products.
Konami then files lawsuits based on
the results of the investigation ,"
Porterfield said. In addition , Konami
is cooperating with U .S. Customs,
the F.B.I., and local police in an
effort to have counterfeiters pro-
secuted criminally.
Konami's U .S. subsidiary , Konami,
Inc., and Konami 's U.S . distributor
of Track & Field, Centuri, Inc.,
joined in the lawsuit against Litsey
which was filed in federal court in
Louisville , Kentucky. The lawsuit is
ba sed on federal copyright and
trademark laws.
Gary Hillerich, Litsey 's attorney,
told Play Meter that the suit is "in
the process of being dismissed" but
that "the paperwork hasn ' t been
finished yet." He also indicated that
Litsey will get back the actual games,
but not the confiscated boards.
Konami officials, however, said
that the suit has not and will not be
dropped.
•
KONAMI RAIDS
CANADIAN LOCA liONS
Konami Industry Co., Ltd . ha s
extended its video game copyright
enforcement campaign to Canada
by instituting suits against 40 defen-
dants and carrying out court ordered
searches and seizures obtained
without notice to the defendants.
On April17 , attorneys represent-
ing Konami simultaneously raided
locations in British Columbia and
Ontario netting bogus Track & Field
games , printed circuit boards ,
graphics, and business records.
The Canadian action comes on
the heels of extensive i nvestigation ,
seizures , and prosecutions b y
Konami and Centuri in New York
and Kentucky. In New York , Konami
targeted 13 alleged counterfeiters in
October 1983 . Again , in April1984 ,
Konami raided Litsey Equipment
Company , a Kentucky-based com-
pany allegedly a widely known dis-
tributor of bogus video games
throughout the Midwest. (See news
story in this issue.)
The Canadian operation began in
January when Centuri , the exclusive
licensee of the North American
rights in Track & Field, and a co-
plaintiff in the lawsuit, received
complaints from its distributors th at
Toronto, Ontario, and Vancouver,
British Columbia , were major cen-
ters for video game piracy. As a
12
re sult of the complaints, a full-scale
investigation was launched under
the direction of the Toronto law
firm of Lang, Michener, Cranston ,
Farquharson & Wright .
" Though there may be individuals
making a few boards in their garages,
most counterfeit boards originate in
the Orient. To get these bogus
boards into the United States, it is
much easier to go through Canada ,"
said Centuri 's Tom Siemieniec. " Of
course , Konami is after the one- and
two-game operators, but they get
the boards from somewhere , so we
want to stop the main flow from
Canada ."
The investigation culminated in
the commencement of an action in
the Federal Court of Canada against
40 defendants, including 10 distrib-
utors and 24 operators in and
around Toronto and five distrib-
utors in and around Vancouver.
Toronto lawyers Michael Eisen and
Christopher Pibus obtained extra-
ordinary relief from the court
known as an Anton ~iller order,
which granted wide-ranging powers
to search the defendants' locations
and seize infringing articles, includ-
ing bogus games and printed circuit
boards , without notice to the
defendants .
Eisen explained: " Because the
community of video pirates in
Toronto and across Canada is rela-
tively small and always alert to the
threat of seizure , it was necessary to
execute the searches simultaneously
across the country-for fear that
word of the lawsuit would spread
among the defendants and crucial
evidence would disappear. The pre-
cautions were worthwhile-the
dramatic results of the Vancouver
operation alone are proof that
secrecy was maintained until the last
moment."
According to Konami attorney
Curtis Porterfield , most counterfeit
Track & Field games are easy to
recognize because they were copied
abroad and bear the Japanese name
for the game Hyper Olympic.
Ken lchiki, president of Konami 's
United States subsidiary, empha-
sized that the Canadian operation is
only part of Konami's efforts to halt
piracy of its video games in North
America . Recently, Konami initiated
several large-scale investigations in
the United States, focusing on Time
Pilot '84, Time Pilot, Mega Zone,
Gyruss, and Circus Charlie. lchiki
explained the rationale for the
investigations : " Konami will not
tolerate being ripped off by pirates.
The Canadian lawsuit and the
accompanying seizure operation is
only another step in Konami's
ongoing enforcement efforts."
•
PLAY METER. July 1 . 1984