Square Enix Wins $600,000 From Unlicensed Sword Sellers
4 firms had sold sword replicas based on Final Fantasy games, anime
Square Enix has announced on Tuesday that it settled its lawsuit against four wholesalers of unauthorized sword replicas from the Final Fantasy game franchise and computer-generated anime. Georgia’s Edgework Imports, Inc., Top Swords, Inc., and Wholesale Gallery, Inc. agreed to “a consent judgment for US$600,000 and injunctive relief” along with another company, California’s Pacific Solutions Marketing, Inc. The rest of the settlement terms for Square Enix’s first major American anti-piracy suit remain private. Square Enix had arranged earlier settlements with four other companies: KingofSwords.com, Master Cutlery, Inc., SwordDemon.com and TrueSwords.com.
The four defendants of the recently settled lawsuit gave the following prepared statement: “We regret having sold unauthorized replica merchandise based on the Final Fantasy franchise to our customers. We would not have begun importing and selling these swords if we knew that Square Enix would respond so aggressively to stop us. We will never make this mistake again.”
Yasuhiko Hasegawa, Square Enix’s general counsel, added, “We appreciate the efforts of our fans in identifying those who seek to sell them cheap replicas that undermine our efforts to bring only top quality goods and content to our customers.”
