What did our grandparents always say to us? "Never counterfeit Nintendo products or else you’ll get sued and ordered to pay $2.5 million!"
Ok, so I guess my grandparents were the only ones who said that. Nonetheless, a Uruguayan Civil Court Judge ordered a major counterfeiter of Nintendo products to pay the above amount to Nintendo today.
Back in 2001, four retail shops and a warehouse were raided where over 30,000 counterfeit Nintendo products were captured and seized in Montevideo, Uruguay. A principal owner of the shops and the warehouse was charged with trademark counterfeiting, but surprisingly, the criminal case was dropped in 2003 — due to "an unexplained executive pardon".
After the raid, Nintendo filed a civil action lawsuit against the owner and finally years later, the suit went through and the Judge ordered $2.5 million to be paid to Nintendo. Specifically, Nintendo claimed, "…he was selling and distributing counterfeit Nintendo products…, obtaining sizeable profits and damaging Nintendo’s reputation."
Jodi Daughtery, senior director of anti-piracy for Nintendo of America, said, "These types of illegal operations simply will not be tolerated and Nintendo will do everything in its power to protect its business and its customers."
