44 replies to this topic

[James The Fox Dixon]

Here is the court filing from HG in their lawsuit against Hasbro over the Jetfire/Skystriker Transformer/GI Joe aircraft.

http://www.courthous...ransformers.pdf

HG makes a lot of bold claims that Hasbro can easily destroy if Hasbro uses the 2006 Japanese court rulings in the case of Tatsunoko vs. Big West/Studio Nue. This will pave the way for PGI/Catalyst Games to being able to license the unseen Macross/Southern Cross mechs and use them.

[James The Fox Dixon]

In point 7 of the complaint, under the Facts section, HG has an error in it that ignores the Japanese court rulings in 2006. Here is the statement:

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This actions involves an infringement of Harmony Gold's rights--including the right to prepare derivative works, such as toys and other merchandise-in and to three animated television series that originated in Japan between 1982 and 1984. The subject television series (collectively, the "Series") are entitled: Macross, Episodes 1-36, which was telecast in 1982-1983; Mospeada, Episodes 1-25, which was telecast in 1983-1984; and The Southern Cross, Episodes 1-23. which was telecast in 1983-1984. The Series featured futuristic animation and mechanical robot characters, vehicles, and weaponry for extraterrestrial combat, including without limitation a vehicle known as the Veritech Fighter VF-1. Tatsunoko Production Company, Ltd. ("Tatsunoko"), a Japanese corporation, is the exclusive author and owner of all worldwide copyrights, moral rights, and rights of publication of the Series, except for certain limited rightd rights not related to this action which Tatsunoko granted to third parties.

The error is when HG makes the claim that Tatsunoko is the exclusive author and owner of all worldwide copyrights of everything within the series of Macross and Southern Cross. The Japanese courts ruled in 2002 and 2006 that Tatsunoko only owns the animation but not anything within the animation. It does not have exclusive copyrights to the mech and character designs that are within Macross and Southern Cross.

Anyone else's thoughts?

[Loc Nar]

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This will pave the way for PGI/Catalyst Games to being able to license the unseen Macross/Southern Cross mechs and use them.

That'd be swell...

<---cause this routine is getting old

[Reggimus]

I see they are trying for a jury trail.... wouldn't it be nice if the jury all turned out to be BT fans... dreams are free.

[Adridos]

Reggimus, on 04 August 2013 - 02:38 AM, said:

I see they are trying for a jury trail.... wouldn't it be nice if the jury all turned out to be BT fans... dreams are free.

BT fans, Robotech fans, Macross fans, Transformer fans, et cetera. Harmony Gold has had quite a ride and made a crapton of enemies during it. And don't get me started on the fact there's quite a few IP's owned by Hasbro that have quite the following...

Let's hope universe has a good sense of humor.

Edited by Adridos, 04 August 2013 - 02:51 AM.

[metro]

Free the unseens!

[Mason Grimm]

Hasboro has more money than HG, by a lot. It will be interesting indeed to see the results.

There was a case recently in the news were someone was patent squatting and created a company to sue other companies that he claimed were infringing upon his patents. Patents that he never did anything with other than hold the note on. He made hundreds of millions of dollars doing this because these big companies would settle out of court for like 10 cents on the dollar kinda thing. One day he attempted to sue someone who didn't settle out of court, who fought back, with a LOT of backing behind them. Guess what? That patent squatter had a vast majority of his patents invalidated.

(grabs some popcorn)

Fire it up!!!

[Bolththrower]

Really hope Hasbro stomps all over HG, and that open the doors for others to walk over the HG corpse.

[dal10]

we need to send a letter to catalyst asking them to file an amicus brief to the court informing them of the japanese court rulings. see if they can rule that HG has not claim to any of the unseen. allowing them to be directly licensed from the japanese company who owns the designs. allowing the unseen to be seen again.

[Will9761]

HG thinks they're all high-and-mighty because of the Macross designs. But in reality, they had nothing to do with them . I hope Hasbro stomps HG in the ground on this case.

[James The Fox Dixon]

dal10, on 04 August 2013 - 03:28 PM, said:

we need to send a letter to catalyst asking them to file an amicus brief to the court informing them of the japanese court rulings. see if they can rule that HG has not claim to any of the unseen. allowing them to be directly licensed from the japanese company who owns the designs. allowing the unseen to be seen again.

That is actually a smart thing to do. You could even write an email to Topps and to Hasbro to let them know as well. This will give them a direction to counter HG.

Edited by James The Fox Dixon, 04 August 2013 - 04:29 PM.

[dal10]

James The Fox Dixon, on 04 August 2013 - 04:14 PM, said:

That is actually a smart thing to do. You could even write an email to Topps and to Hasbro to let them know as well. This will give them a direction to counter HG.

if hasbro's lawyers haven't already figured this one out, they need better lawyers. reason i was suggesting that catalyst (or whoever actually owns the rights to battletech) send in an amicus brief is to get the judge to rule in no uncertain terms that HG has no right to any of the unseen designs. (well their macross versions)

considering previous legal trouble between battletech and HG they would have standing to submit an amicus brief. (basically a 3rd party letter supporting one side or another.)

Edited by dal10, 04 August 2013 - 04:56 PM.

[James The Fox Dixon]

dal10, on 04 August 2013 - 04:52 PM, said:

if hasbro's lawyers haven't already figured this one out, they need better lawyers. reason i was suggesting that catalyst (or whoever actually owns the rights to battletech) send in an amicus brief is to get the judge to rule in no uncertain terms that HG has no right to any of the unseen designs. (well their macross versions)

considering previous legal trouble between battletech and HG they would have standing to submit an amicus brief. (basically a 3rd party letter supporting one side or another.)

Well Catalyst licenses it from Topps, so it would be prudent to contact both companies.

[Reggimus]

so who's doing it then?

[Reggimus]

Here another gem I came across..

http://www.animenews...d-for-tax-fraud

bah, it shortened it, anyway follow up article
http://www.animenews...ve-no-jail-time

TL;DR - The founder of Harmony Gold was found guilty of tax fraud in Italy, and sentenced to 3 years jail, but due to over crowding he won't do time, but has to pony up with $12mill in damages.

Edited by Reggimus, 06 August 2013 - 12:26 AM.

[Will9761]

Wow...this is some interesting stuff. So he's not going to jail but he still has to pay what he owes ? That's what I call an odd fate of justice if I've ever seen it.

Edited by Will9761, 06 August 2013 - 11:32 AM.

[Chavette]

Will9761, on 06 August 2013 - 11:27 AM, said:

So he's not going to jail but he still has to pay what he owes ?

Of course he has to pay...

[Will9761]

Chavette, on 06 August 2013 - 11:51 AM, said:

Of course he has to pay...

It's the fact he didn't go to jail. The paying part is fine, but the jail part is what concerns me.

Edited by Will9761, 06 August 2013 - 01:07 PM.

[Will9761]

We need to rally around Hasbro so we can get our beloved Macross Unseens. I don't know about you guys, but I'm ready for Project Phoenix part 2!

Edited by Will9761, 07 August 2013 - 03:56 PM.

[Wieland]

So, if i get that right our beloved unseen are only in the original series? Not in a Macross Movie or in one of the newer series?

I ask because they say they only hold the rights to the original series.