Back when... Universal sued Donkey Kong, but Kirby fought back

In a time when Nintendo's home consoles didn't yet exist and arcade games was all the rage. Nintendo came out with their first arcade game Laser Clay Shooting System in 1973
In 1980 Namco showed the world how infuencal a video game could be, with the mega success Pac-Man. Nintendo started their work towards something that could rival Namco's success and help them break into the American gaming market
The assignment was handed to someone who had never produced a video game before, Shigeru Miyamoto. You might recognize the name Miyamoto today, but back then it was an unknown name
The game took inspiration from other works, including Popeye, Beauty and the Beast and King Kong. With help from Gunpei Yokoi, Donkey Kong was created for arcades and released in 1981. The game featured cutscenes and multiple levels, which was new grounds within video games at the time
Donkey Kong went onto being the highest-grossing arcade game of 1981 and 1982. It was also the game Nintendo needed, to enter the American gaming market
Over at Universal
While Nintendo is having great success in the video game market, Universal was working on how to get into the booming video game marketPresident of Universal City Studios learned about Donkey Kong in April of 1982 and put their vice president of legislative matters, Robert Hadl to investigate. Who found out Nintendo's Donkey was an infringement of their ownership to King Kong character and storyline
Royalties claim
Now that Universal was certain it was an infringement, they started sending out letters to claim royalties and to stop distribution of Donkey KongColeco got requested to pay 3% royalty on their home port of Donkey Kong and stop sales of the game. Coleco complied, under the agreement Universal wouldn't sue them
Tiger Electronics was creating a handheld version of Donkey Kong, with licence from Nintendo and got the same request. Tiger didn't believe Universal had the rights to King Kong and challenge Universal claims
Nintendo was first planning to settle, but later decided to fight Universals claim. On may 6th Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa and their lawyer Howard Lincoln, had a meeting with Universal vice president. Where Universal says Donkey Kong was infriding on their King Kong copyright. While Nintendo's lawyer said they'd found multiple copyright infringement Universal haven't laid claim on and Universal trademarks are less than 10 years old. By the end of the meeting, Universal agreed to send Nintendo chain of title. To show who have own King Kong title in the past and prove that Universal is the current owner of the title
After a few weeks, as Universal failed to provide the chain of title and instead just sent further royalty claims. Nintendo called a meeting with Universal on the 21st of May. Universal agreed, thinking Nintendo was ready to give in
Cease and decist
Universal officially sued Nintendo on June 29, 1982. Then on January 3, 1983 Universal sent Nintendo licensees a cease and decist letter for their Donkey Kong ports, giving them three options1) Stop using Donkey Kong characters 2) Obtain a license from Universal 3) Be sued
Coleco already had already made an license agreement with Universal, six more Donkey Kong licensee followed suite. While Milton Bradley refused to do so
Nintendo hired John Kirby to represent them in court. Kirby had won other big cases for PepsiCo., General Foods and Warner-Lambert, which was why he was choosen to represent Nintendo
Lawsuit
The court was held in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York by Judge Robert W. Sweet. During it's seven days trial, Universals lawyers argued that the Donkey Kong name could be confused with their King Kong property and the plot of the game was an infringement of their movie, which Kirby argued there where distinct differences between the two titlesKirby alleged that Universal had no rights to the King Kong branding, as Universal had sued RKO Pictures in 1975 and therin proven that King Kong was in the open domain
Judge Sweet ruled that Universal did not have any trademark in King Kong. Even if Universal did have trademark in King Kong, Judge Sweet found it unlikely for anyone to mistake King Kong for Donkey Kong
Appeal
Universal was not happy with the outcome and decided to fight back on that people mistake Donkey Kong for King KongUniversal performed phone survey to 150 managers and owners of arcades, pizza restaurants and bowling alleys that had Nintendo's Donkey Kong arkade and asked them two questions
18% believed Donkey Kong was made under the approval or authority of the ones who make King Kong movies. While on their second question, no one named Universal
Universal used this to argue that there was confusion between the two names. They also provided six examples from printed media, to there being confusion between the names
The court upheld their ruling, stating "The two properties have nothing in common but a gorilla, a captive woman, a male rescuer, and a building scenario." Court further elaborated "The 'Kong' and 'King Kong' names are widely used by the general public and are associated with apes and other objects of enormous proportions."
Nintendo's countersuite
Now that Nintendo had won two rounds in court, they countersued Universal for damages, court expenses and lost revenue for the ceast and decist letters Universal have sent to Donkey Kong licenseesNintendo was given the option to accept statutory damages or take Universals profit from licensees of their Donkey Kong game. Nintendo opted for the later and received US $56,689.41. Universal also had to pay Nintendo for damages and legal fees, on top
Kirby is born
To thank John Kirby, Nintendo gave him an US$ 30.000 sailboat named Donkey Kong and the "exclusive worldwide rights to use the [Donkey Kong] name for sailboats". This is of course of top of his legal feesIn honor of John Kirby's service, the titular character of Kirby's Dream Land was named after Kirby