Nintendo of America has filed a lawsuit against gaming accessory manufacturer Genki‘s parent company Human Things for “trademark infringement, unfair competition and false advertising” under the 1946 Trademark Act.
With thanks to OatmealDome for spotting it, in Nintendo’s 27-page filing with the United States District Court in the Central District of California their attorneys outline their perception of Genki’s unlawful activities in advertising (although later retracting) that they had unauthorised access to a Nintendo Switch 2 console and were manufacturing several accessories that would be compatible with it.
They explain that Genki would not be able to manufacture compatible Nintendo Switch 2 accessories without access to a Nintendo Switch 2 console or to proprietary technical specifications that they had not been authorised to receive.
In timelining the events that have occurred, before the portable home console successor was even revealed to the world, Genki publicly reached out to GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen in December 2024 to talk about “the launch Switch 2 accessories we are working on.”
Still ahead of the console’s reveal, on 1 January 2025 Genki’s exhibitor page for the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) publicised their intention to host a Booth Media Briefing on 7 January 2025 at which the company would share “any Switch 2 info we may have as well as the stuff we’re making for it.”
At the event, they “demoed and promoted unauthorised purported mockups and renderings of the Nintendo Switch 2 and its accessories.” This included two unauthorised 3D printed mockups of the Nintendo Switch 2, with which company representatives boasted to reporters that it had early access to the unreleased console and allowed guests to hold and measure the mockups.”
Nintendo states that this led many to believe that Genki had been “sent a model of the Nintendo Switch 2 by Nintendo itself or received approval from Nintendo to see the new hardware for the purpose of developing accessories.”
That situation had forced Nintendo to issue a statement to the media that “the gaming hardware that Genki presented as Nintendo hardware at CES is unofficial and was not provided to the company by us.” This statement led to Genki backtracking on many of the remarks that it had made, denying that it ever had early access to a Nintendo Switch 2 console and that their designs were based on leaked information within the industry.”
Genki continued to make misjudged posts pretending CEO Edward Tsai had infiltrated Nintendo’s headquarters in Kyoto, Japan, and joking that the company was unable to keep a secret.
The evidence continues for several more pages in the filing, and it’s hard not to find yourself agreeing with Nintendo’s arguments against Genki. We’ll have to keep an eye on the situation as it continues to evolve…
