KTE KT News
11/04/2024

Notice Concerning Civil Litigation against YOUZU (SINGAPORE) PTE. LTD.

KOEI TECMO INFORMATION

April 11, 2024

KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD.

Notice Concerning Civil Litigation against YOUZU (SINGAPORE) PTE. LTD.

We, KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD. (headquartered in Yokohama, Japan; President & COO Hisashi Koinuma), announced today that we have filed a complaint with the Tokyo District Court on April 8, 2024 claiming damages and requesting for injunctions against YOUZU (SINGAPORE) PTE. LTD. (“Defendant”) for intellectual property infringement.

 

1.Defendant

(1)Name of Company

YOUZU (SINGAPORE) PTE. LTD.

(2)Registered Office Address

29 MEDIA CIRCLE, #09-01, ALICE@MEDIAPOLIS, SINGAPORE (138565)

(3)Business Profile

Distribution and operation of smartphone-based game apps such as “Sengoku Legend: Uprising”, “Infinity Kingdom” and “Dynasty Origins”.

2.Outline of the case

The music and images created for our game series “Nobunaga’s Ambition” and “Taiko Risshiden” and our trademarks are our intellectual property rights, but Defendant continuously used them for online advertising of the Defendant’s game app (the “Defendant App”) without obtaining our license. We have determined these uses constitute infringements of copyright and trademark.

Furthermore, this is not the first time that Defendant has infringed upon our intellectual property rights and in the past, we have sent out warnings on Defendant’s infringement activities multiple times, but there have been repeated infringement activities without any effective improvement to this day. Moreover, this time Defendant is using our company name in public without permission, and we have also confirmed descriptions that cause user’s misconceptions that we are related to the Defendant App.

These Defendant actions are not only detrimental to the users and our partners, but also tramples over the efforts of all parties involved in the development of our games, and we have determined that it is highly malicious. For the reasons stated above, this lawsuit has been filed.

Our group will continue to take a firm position against this kind of infringement that occurs both domestic and overseas to protect our intellectual property and make further efforts to pursue our goal of becoming “The World’s No.1 Digital Entertainment Company” in order to enrich the hearts of users world-wide.

For media inquiries, contact:

KOEI TECMO HOLDINGS CO., LTD.

Legal Department (Nishimura / Sakurai)

TEL:045-562-8111

Corporate Information Website https://www.koeitecmo.co.jp/