UD vs. Konami Lawsuit

official presser from UD... man, do these guys sound... rhymes with docky.

Upper Deck Ends Dispute with Konami

Favorable outcome for the trading card giant

Carlsbad, CA (January 29, 2010) – Upper Deck is pleased to announce that it has come to a successful resolution with Konami over their year-long dispute regarding Yu-Gi-Oh!® trading cards. On the eve of trial, the court issued several rulings in Upper Deck’s favor which eliminated and gravely threatened many of Konami’s monetary claims requests. These rulings sent Konami and its attorneys into retreat as Konami’s case was disintegrating. These events, and these events alone, provided the framework for the case to be resolved after opening statements were presented to the jury.

"Upper Deck is extremely pleased with the cooperative resolution with Konami. Sometimes it simply takes a courtroom, the presence of a jury, and the start of a trial for a party like Konami to finally recognize that it will be unable to live up to its pre-trial rhetoric," said Richard K. Howell, a partner at Rutan & Tucker in Costa Mesa, California.

Upper Deck had a long history with Yu-Gi-Oh! and is proud to have been such a vital part of the brand's success in North America and Europe over the past six years. By creating a top notch organized play program and spending tens of millions of dollars on marketing and television broadcast, Upper Deck built a solid foundation on which Yu-Gi-Oh! will benefit for years to come.

“Though we are delighted that Konami was finally forced to see the light regarding its claims, there is, of course, a bittersweet side to the ending of this dispute,” added Richard McWilliam, Upper Deck CEO. “During the six years we spent building the Yu-Gi-Oh! brand we formed strong ties to the playing community, and, in the end, they are the ones that suffered most because of this lawsuit. Instead of focusing on the merits of the case, Konami focused its efforts on pursuing exaggerated claims and damages which it could not establish in the courtroom.”
 
official presser from UD... man, do these guys sound... rhymes with docky.

Upper Deck Ends Dispute with Konami

Favorable outcome for the trading card giant

Carlsbad, CA (January 29, 2010) – Upper Deck is pleased to announce that it has come to a successful resolution with Konami over their year-long dispute regarding Yu-Gi-Oh!® trading cards. On the eve of trial, the court issued several rulings in Upper Deck’s favor which eliminated and gravely threatened many of Konami’s monetary claims requests. These rulings sent Konami and its attorneys into retreat as Konami’s case was disintegrating. These events, and these events alone, provided the framework for the case to be resolved after opening statements were presented to the jury.

"Upper Deck is extremely pleased with the cooperative resolution with Konami. Sometimes it simply takes a courtroom, the presence of a jury, and the start of a trial for a party like Konami to finally recognize that it will be unable to live up to its pre-trial rhetoric," said Richard K. Howell, a partner at Rutan & Tucker in Costa Mesa, California.

Upper Deck had a long history with Yu-Gi-Oh! and is proud to have been such a vital part of the brand's success in North America and Europe over the past six years. By creating a top notch organized play program and spending tens of millions of dollars on marketing and television broadcast, Upper Deck built a solid foundation on which Yu-Gi-Oh! will benefit for years to come.

“Though we are delighted that Konami was finally forced to see the light regarding its claims, there is, of course, a bittersweet side to the ending of this dispute,” added Richard McWilliam, Upper Deck CEO. “During the six years we spent building the Yu-Gi-Oh! brand we formed strong ties to the playing community, and, in the end, they are the ones that suffered most because of this lawsuit. Instead of focusing on the merits of the case, Konami focused its efforts on pursuing exaggerated claims and damages which it could not establish in the courtroom.”


WOW i am officially done buying their product. I will still collect singles (only need 34 more steens) but this is inexcusable. Ive only broken 2 boxes of UD in the last 3 months but im officially done.
 
Um... did they not ADMIT they counterfeited 611,000 cards under oath?? How did Konami "see the light"? not sure what else to say here...

this is the part i'm curious about:

On the eve of trial, the court issued several rulings in Upper Deck’s favor which eliminated and gravely threatened many of Konami’s monetary claims requests. These rulings sent Konami and its attorneys into retreat as Konami’s case was disintegrating. These events, and these events alone, provided the framework for the case to be resolved after opening statements were presented to the jury.

considering what the potential monetary threat could have been and what the settlement was, UD may have felt they did alright coming out of this.
 
WOW i am officially done buying their product. I will still collect singles (only need 34 more steens) but this is inexcusable. Ive only broken 2 boxes of UD in the last 3 months but im officially done.

Wait, you're done with Upper Deck because they are happy that a lawsuit kinda/sorta went in their favour?
 
“Though we are delighted that Konami was finally forced to see the light regarding its claims, there is, of course, a bittersweet side to the ending of this dispute,” added Richard McWilliam, Upper Deck CEO. “During the six years we spent building the Yu-Gi-Oh! brand we formed strong ties to the playing community, and, in the end, they are the ones that suffered most because of this lawsuit. Instead of focusing on the merits of the case, Konami focused its efforts on pursuing exaggerated claims and damages which it could not establish in the courtroom.”

Like he really gives a rat's *** about the "playing community" and how they feel. McPornstache dodged a HUGE bullet here (financially) and he's probably laughing excessively somewhere over this. The (seriously) good part? If UD's image wasn't crap before, it sure as hell is now.

Count me COMPLETELY out of the UD card business and I turn my back and raise a one finger salute at you, McGreedy.
 
I would love to see the details of the exclusive.

Surely there must be a clause in there somewhere regarding the company needing to be in a good standing or at the very least a clause regarding reputation. If (as i have read it so far) UD have been confirmed as having knowingly soldand distributed fakes then as a body (NHK,NHLPA ect) I would not want my bran associated with theirs.

I am glad as collectors we have ITG and an alternative route for collecting. I wish the folks in charge could see for example how well H&P as been recieved this year, its seems everyone (exept me grrrr) is getting into the stuff this year

Pete
 
Um... did they not ADMIT they counterfeited 611,000 cards under oath?? How did Konami "see the light"? not sure what else to say here...

There was something about the provability of the number in question. This is the only report that mentions it:
611K? Perhaps only 20K.

While Konami is alleging over 600K cards counterfeited and imported by UD, perhaps this means all that they can provably attribute to UD is far fewer. I don't know the details, and this is speculative only.
 
That response by UD is unbelievable! They make it sound like Konami are to blame for this whole fiasco. I was never a UD basher but this has put a sour taste in my mouth. I hope they tank and FAST! Please let the NHL and the PA see the light and allow other companies back into the hockey market
 
There was something about the provability of the number in question. This is the only report that mentions it:
611K? Perhaps only 20K.

While Konami is alleging over 600K cards counterfeited and imported by UD, perhaps this means all that they can provably attribute to UD is far fewer. I don't know the details, and this is speculative only.

Hmmm... Vintage didn't get all the 611,000 cards (Vintage was the first-named defendant), but Legends & Beckett got some. Why did Beckett get them? What would Beckett do with counterfeit cards and why hasn't that info come out before? Odd...
 
Hmmm... Vintage didn't get all the 611,000 cards (Vintage was the first-named defendant), but Legends & Beckett got some. Why did Beckett get them? What would Beckett do with counterfeit cards and why hasn't that info come out before? Odd...

Wrong Beckett Bruce. Beckett Associates is the company that does a lot of the retail supply , stocking, and display for Targets, Walmarts, etc in the sports/gaming card departments.

Darren
 
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Wrong Beckett Bruce. Beckett Associates is the company that does a lot of the retail supply , stocking, and display for Targets, Walmarts, etc in the sports/gamind card departments.

Darren

Dammit... was hoping we had something else to crucify them with ;)

Moving on...
 
Something was very interesting in the settlement. I heard that Konami insisted on Upper Deck admitting fault, this is not normal for a settlement.

Perhaps that was Konami's goal in the first place and there is more litigation coming down the road.

Usually in a settlement both sides say that they admit nothing but want to settle. Upper Deck had nothing to lose since they admitted their guilt in the Summary Judgment.

What if Target, WalMart and the other retailer sue based on selling their customers fake inserts?

Looks like Konami created a clear path to Upper Deck's doors.

One other thing to consider is that if Konami set it's sights lower in the settlement, they actually will receive the funds. If the court found UD had to pay much more, they could appeal the decision for years or go bankrupt.

Maybe is Konami is dumb like a fox!

Very interesting case and result. First Summary Judgment is rarely granted unless the evidence is overwhelming. Then to have to admit guilt in a settlement document!

If my information is correct, this is not quite over yet.

Brian Price
 
Maybe Konami is dumb like a fox!

Sly, sly, Konami...thank God they have more brains than Upper Deck seemingly does. If this is the case and Konami just cleared the brush to UD's front door, here' hoping Walmart gets angry enough and teams with an equally angry (yet smaller) Target to go bust some heads.

If this hobby is going to survive, it's going to need to do so without Upper Deck.
 
I can't believe the arrogance of the UD press statement! They admit wrong doing in the settlement, and then issue a statement making themselves sound like a vindicated victim, as if THEY are the ones who've been wronged. Amazing.
 
you guys really can't believe that the press for both companies are spinning it to make them look like the victors? does Konami really think they won either? we'll never really know how much of the $50-150M they actually got.
 
Either way I will not purchase any memorabilia cards that UD has produced from now on. They have pretty much lost all credibility and I trust them about as far as I can throw them.
 
is it time for us to write to the Wal-Mart's and Target's and let them know of our anger of being sold counterfeit cards.

Maybe a civil lawsuit in which we can all get compensated from UD?
 

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