RomUniverse, a site hosting Nintendo games illegally, was summoned to cease operations after a complaint from Nintendo two years back. While it was shut, Nintendo convinced the court to grant a permanent injunction of RomUniverse not coming online again.
Permanent Injunction Against RomUniverse
Until two years back, RomUniverse was one of the popular sites for downloading Nintendo games for free. But, as it’s infringing the copyrights of Nintendo, the Japanese gaming company sued it in California federal court in 2019. What’s interesting here is the RomUniverse’s operator – Matthew Storman, a Los Angeles resident who disagreed with Nintendo’s allegations of infringement and decided to fight against the case without a lawyer. As Nintendo proved flaws in his objections, the court granted Nintendo’s wishes for seeking damage penalties worth $2.1 million. But, Nintendo is seeking more on this case, as it asked the judge to grant a permanent injunction order against the RomUniverse operator. While this was initially denied, a second look into the request now led the California federal judge to order a permanent injunction against RomUniverse’s operator, who’s now denied to copy, distribute, sell or even play unauthorized copies of Nintendo games. Further, using Nintendo’s trademarks, logo’s or names in a ‘confusing’ manner is not allowed either. This came after RomUniverse’s operator hinted about the site’s comeback, potentially without Nintendo’s content. But the court didn’t spare it. Also, the judge has ordered the operator of now-defunct RomUniverse to destroy all pirated Nintendo games which are still in his possession. Since last year, Nintendo has been active in taking down pirated games and domains distributed to them.
